Loadstar 128 24/q24.d81/t.sidewinder

Text File | 2022-08-28 | 5KB | 102 lines

                       S I D E W I N D E R   2 . 0

                              by e. g. bell


     Keyboard overlays have been around ever since keyboards were
invented.  It just seems handier to have a quick-view instructions
surrounding your keyboard than to have to page through a manual -- which
is probably in another room.  In fact, these days most major programs like
Geos, the Fun Graphic Machine, and THE WRITE STUFF have keyboard overlays
for them.

     Now you can make nice-looking overlays for any program -- even your
own -- with SIDEWINDER.  It's called that because in order to print the
overlay, your printer will have to print everything sideways.  It will
print whatever instructions you tell it to around a cut-out area that
exactly fits the keyboard on your C-128 or C-128D.  All you have to do is
cut out the interior areas of the boxes, paste the paper to some cardboard
or posterboard, and enjoy having all instructions at hand while using your
program.

     ed bell is a programmer and he feels that all C-128 users should be
familiar with loading, saving and editing BASIC programs.  I agree.  Easy
access to the BASIC code of most programs is what separates us from (and
makes us much more powerful than) IBM users, who are 100% at the mercy of
programmers and designers.  This program is easy to use and modify -- all
you need to have is confidence and a beginner's knowledge of handling
BASIC programs.

     On this disk is "sidewinder", the template you will use to make your
keyboard overlay.  It has a couple of support files, "Letters" and
"sw.obj.ii" that must be on the disk, too.  In addition, there is a demo
called "rtc.demo" on the disk that you can run to see SIDEWINDER in real
action, with text around the key areas.  The template has all of the
string areas defined, but empty, so if you run it, it will print out the
outlines of the key areas without printing any text on the overlay.  It
might be a good idea to run "sidewinder" to test whether your printer is
printing everything the right size.

NOTE: SIDEWINDER supports two types of printers: the Commodore 1525 (7-pin
mode), and the Epson (8-pin mode).  If you have a 1525 or an SG-10C
printer, select Commodore printer when asked by the program.  For any
other printer, select Epson mode and set your interface for transparent.
SIDEWINDER will not print properly on the 24-pin printers we've tried it
on, but see if you can't get it to print properly in the Epson mode.  I
tried everything I could think of, but it always prints an overlay that's
too wide on my Star NX-2410.

     So try out "rtc.demo" and when it's printing a nice overlay that fits
your keyboard, you're ready to make your own overlay by using the
template, "sidewinder".  But first check out how the demo prints five
columns of text around the keyboard.  The demo of RTCMASTER, which is a
terminal program by ed for use on GEnie, really packs the text in, but
chances are you won't have to enter in so much for the program you're
making an overlay for.

     Before creating an overlay you should organize the way you want your
overlay to look.  Put the F-key functions together, preferably near the
right side of the keyboard.  In general, the secret to a good overlay is
to keep similar functions together and to place them near the actual keys.
SIDEWINDER gives you plenty of room around the keys so you can be logical
about where to put your instructions.

     Load "sidewinder" and list lines 4620-5200.  Notice that the string
length is set in the code and shouldn't be changed.  All you have to do is
enter text inside the quotes and press RETURN on the line.  This is the
text that will appear to the left of the keyboard.  Notice that some of
the lines are shorter than others because of the shape of the keyboard.
You don't have to enter anything in a string if you don't want to.  Just
don't change the lengths of any of the defined strings and don't delete
any of the strings.

     Look at the rest of the code and you can see by the REMARKs where
each section of code will be printed.  It will help to compare this to the
demo you printed out.

     Line 20000 is a scratch and save line.  Change the name in quotes in
this line and you can easily scratch and save your program by entering
"goto20000" or "run20000".

NOTE: You may want to get rid of the "instructions" baggage in your
program like ed did in his "rtc.demo".  If so, simply DELETE lines 740-900
and 9440-10680.

     "sidewinder" is a program that shows that sometimes simpler is
better.  It could have been written so that the user makes up his overlay
while inside the program, as with most LOADSTAR programs.  This would have
required sophisticated input routines and traps to make sure the user
didn't enter anything wrong.  ed's way is to give you the BASIC source
code and let you modify it as you wish -- as long as you don't change the
length of the strings.

     Is it any wonder why those of us who stay with the 8-bit Commodores
have more fun?

FT

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