Printing Strings Faster

While drawing some bar graphs in the SLOW mode, the PRINT routine was so slow I could actually see each character appear. I tried using the excellent string-handling capability of the 8K ROM. The difference was dramatic. Try both of these in SLOW:

The slow way–

 100 FOR I=1 TO N
 110 PRINT "X";
 120 NEXT I

The fast way–

 100 LET L$="XXXXX...X" (at least N Xs)
 110 PRINT L$( TO N)

---

Choose a fairly large number to substitute for N. If you have enough memory, this method certainly speeds string printing. The routine following demonstrates how fast it can be.–AZ