Letter to the Editor

HERE’S A REM TO REMEMBER

As suggested by Robert Caufman of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a REM can be a valuable programming tool and a big help during the testing, editing and debugging aspects of programming.

Bob shows us how a temporary program change can be made without losing the original statement. This is accomplished by converting the original statement into a REM as illustrated by the following example:

FROM:

410 LET L$(N) = S$( TO 29)
415 GOTO 500

TO:

410 REM LET L$(N) = S$ (TO 29)
411 LET L$(N) = S$ (TO 23)
415 GOTO 500

BUGS AND GREMLINS

Because the T/S 1000 series accurately “crunches numbers” to 9½ significant digits — of which only 8 are printed — a rounding-off error can inject an incorrect balance into the TIMEX Checkbook Manager software cassette.

According to David Farmer of Norfolk, Virginia, this bug can easily be corrected by adding the following statement to the program (be sure to make the correction before entering any data).

2391 LET BA = INT (BA*100 + .1)/100

In addition, the TIMEX States and Capitals software cassette also contains a small bug: The capital of Florida, Tallahassee, is spelled with one “e” instead of two. Dave tells us to edit line 8528 to correct the error.

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MAILBOX

First and foremost, RAMBLINGS, the TIMEX Computer Club Newsletter is a forum for you, the T/S user. Through this vehicle, T/S users — throughout the country — can exchange valuable and useful techniques, ideas, programs, and discuss other topics of mutual interest.

We gratefully solicit your articles, programs, suggestions, critiques, and brainstorms. Please mail your contributions to the RAMBLINGS Editor. All contributions become the property of TIMEX and none can be returned. We reserve the right to edit contributed materials to conform to space or editorial policies.

And if we publish your material during October through December, we’ll say thank you by sending you a gift of two TIMEX software cassettes of your choice.