If you have more than one tape of PRO/FILE, you are aware of the problem of making improvements since they must be typed into each copy individually. To simplify this, follow these instructions (to use my SAVE routine described later you need to do this anyway so do it now).
- Break into the program as described in the manual.
- As a direct command type in SAVE F$CODE PEEK 23627+2546*PEEK 23628+6,P
- Start your recorder and press ENTER to save the data.
- Rewind the tape, type VERIFY “”CODE and press ENTER and start your tape to verify.
- If it does not verify then try again, otherwise type PRINT P and ENTER. Write the answer down!
- Repeat the process for each of your file tapes.
The only thing we have saved is raw data from D$. Since we skipped over the bytes which describe the length of D$ and only saved the bytes actually used for files (the value of P), you can move data from programs having different lengths for D$ to your new program. The only requirement is that the length of D$ in the new version must be at least 10 bytes longer than the value of P if you use my SAVE routine or equal to P without it. If you reduced the size of D$ to make improvements from the manual you can use my memory saving devices described later to restore it back to its full size or even more.
Put those data tapes away for now. Later, after we have added our improvements, 1’11 show how to transfer them in.