Occasionally a program has lines which are almost identical usually because of conditional statements. For example:
320 IF A$(6 TO 14)="NOTAFRAID" THEN PRINT "OH OH ";N$
330 IF A$(6 TO 14)="NOTAFRAID" THEN PRINT "YOU FORGOT A SPACE ATER NOT"
340 IF A$(6 TO 14)="NOTAFRAID" THEN PRINT "TRY IT AGAIN"
350 IF A$(6 TO 14)="NOTAFRAID" THEN GOTO 250
Or:
360 IF A$(6 TO 14)<>"NOTAFRAID" AND A$<>"I AM NOT AFRAID OF COMPUTERS" THEN PRINT "SOMETHING IS ";B$;"WRONG. TRY IT AGAIN"
370 IF A$(6 TO 14)<>"NOTAFRAID" AND A$<>"I AM NOT AFRAID OF COMPUTERS" THEN GOTO 250
(B$ is either a space or the word "STILL".)Such lines quickly become a pain to the fingertips, but there is an easy way to avoid these agonies by using the EDIT function.
When you have typed and ENTERed the first line of the series with similar lines, hit EDIT and the line will be brought back to the bottom of the screen. Change the line number to the next line number needed and move the cursor to the end of the line. Then, using DELETE, remove everything that is not needed for that line.
Now add the new material and ENTER the line. Repeat the process for as many lines as needed using the EDIT key to bring down the line that is closest in content to the next line you want to type in. You may even want to plan your program so that you can take advantage of this technique from the beginning.
The procedure saves time and avoids the tedium of entering the same thing over and over and…