Here’s a little item which doesn’t seem very useful at first, but 1 refer to it all the time now. In the first file (the one that says “SEARCH IS COMPLETE”) 1 added a second line that holds 8 characters for the date such as 12/25/85. Any 8 characters (or less) can be used. When a file is created it will say “SET DATE” as a reminder to do so. Not only is the date seen every time you complete a search, but it also appears on the main menu. To change the date just enter “DATE” as a search command and you will be prompted to enter the date.
Later, when this file is loaded back in, you will be able to see when you last worked on the file. Often this has helped me remember what I have left to do.
First POKE 64732,27 to correct the machine code sort since the first file is now longer.
3 LET D$( TO J+F)="*SEARCH IS COMPLETE": POKE VAL "23609",E: LET J$="": LET A=O: LET X$="": LET T=O: LET TO=O
104 IF X$="RST" THEN LET P=VAL "29": GO TO U
105 IF X$="DATE" THEN INPUT "NEW DATE: ";D$(VAL "21" TO G*F): GO TO U
106 INK F+U: CLS : IF X$="A" THEN GO TO VAL "5000"
107 IF X$="LOAD" THEN GO TO VAL "5500"
108 IF X$="SAVE" THEN GO TO VAL "8200"
107 IF X$="T" THEN LET E=ABS (E-K): GO TO U
9850 PRINT "FILE: "; INK G;F$; INK INT PI;" ORDER: "; INK G; S, INK INT PI;"OPEN: "; INK G;LEN D$-P;: PRINT " bytes DATE:"; INK G;D$(VAL "21" TO F*G);TAB O;: PRINT "FORMAT:"; INK G;A$,,,TAB O;: RETURN
9996 DIM D$(VAL "27529"): LET P=VAL "29": LET O=NOT PI: LET B=O: LET U=SGN PI: LET H=U+U: LET F=H+H: LET G=VAL "7": LET K=VAL "10": LET J=VAL "15": LET Q=CODE " ": LET R=VAL "256": LET A$="ALL": LET C$=CHR$ O: FOR X=U TO J: LET C$=C$+CHR$ X: NEXT X: LET S=O: LET D$(K+K TO VAL "29")=CHR$ U+"SET DATE*"To adjust your existing files to hold a date you must first have finished all the enhancements from this issue (at least this improvement and the one for combining files). After you have safely made a master copy, load in a data tape but select the MERGE option instead of just load. When back at the main menu, search for the name of the file just merged. You will see the remains of the file that used to say “SEARCH IS COMPLETE”, but now has been overwritten with the file name and the value of P (length of data used). This file is now garbage so delete it. Now you can set the date and save it out again and you are done. Only merge a data tape into a new (that is empty) file. If you have another one to load in you can effectively erase the present one by entering “RST” at the main menu (be sure you have saved it first). When the files have each been handled this way, you can load them in the regular way.