AFR SOFTWARE® – ALBERT F. RODRIGUEZ, PROPRIETOR
1605 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. NO. 204
MIAMI BEACH, FL 33139
(305) 531-6464
THIS PROGRAM IS ABOUT WORD PROCESSING. USING IT TO WRITE THE TEXT OF THESE INSTRUCTIONS SEEMED A GOOD WAY OF SHOWING WHAT IT CAN DO AND WHAT IT CAN BE USED FOR.
THE PROGRAM IS SELF-RUNNING. IF YOU STOP IT FROM EXECUTING IT CAN BE RESTARTED EITHER BY ENTERING “RUN” (IF YOU DO NOT CARE LOSING WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN COMPOSING) OR “GOTO 20” (IF YOU WANT TO AVOID LOSING WHATEVER YOU HAVE BEEN WRITING).
THE PROGRAM WAS MADE WITH CERTAIN LIMITS IN MIND. IT OFFERS 200 LINES AT 30 COLUMNS AVAILABLE PER LINE. AT AN AVERAGE OF 5 WORDS PER LINE IT SHOULD PROVIDE ROOM ENOUGH FOR ABOUT A 1300 WORD ESSAY, DEPENDING, OF COURSE, ON THE STYLE OF WRITING OF THE AUTHOR. IF EVER THERE SHOULD APPEAR A FLASHING, INVERSE VIDEO MESSAGE SAYING THAT THERE ARE NO MORE LINES AVAILABLE, THEN, YOU SHOULD SEND WHATEVER TEXT YOU HAVE WRITTEN TO THE PRINTER OR STORE THE SAME ON TAPE BEFORE CLEARING THE STORAGE AREA SO THAT YOU MAY BEGIN ANEW.
THE PROGRAM IS MENU-DRIVEN. IMMEDIATELY AFTER IT IS LOADED YOU WILL BE CONFRONTED WITH A GRAPHIC FRAME LISTING THE NAME OF THE PROGRAM WITH A PROMPT MESSAGE URGING YOU TO CHOOSE AN OPTION. THE CHOICE MUST BE MADE USING ONLY A NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 5, INCLUSIVE.
THE OPTIONS FEATURED IN THE MENU ARE WHAT THIS PROGRAM IS ESSENTIALLY ALL ABOUT. AN INDIVIDUAL EXPLANATION OF THESE OPTIONS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS WILL ALLOW YOU TO EASILY AND EFFECTIVELY USE THIS PROGRAM. AFTER YOU HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO USE THE PROGRAM, IT WILL BE PRIMARILY UP TO YOUR IMAGINATION TO DETERMINE HOW YOU MAY APPLY IT. THOUGH, I WILL MAKE SOME SUGGESTIONS TOWARD THE END OF THIS PRESENTATION ABOUT HOW THIS PROGRAM DOES HAVE SOME PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.
THE FIRST OPTION PERMITS YOU TO WRITE, STORE AND DISPLAY TEXT ON THE SCREEN IN SCROLL FASHION. THE LINE BEING WRITTEN IS COMPOSED IN THE ENTER LINE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN. YOU HAVE HORIZONTAL CURSOR-CONTROL WITH DELETE CAPABILITIES WHEN COMPOSING A NEW LINE OF TEXT. YOU MAY ALSO ENTER READ/EDIT MODE FROM THIS OPTION BY KEYING IN “*E”. HOWEVER, WHEN YOU DO THIS, DO NOT USE THE EDIT COMMAND “*G” IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS OR BEFORE YOU HAVE USED SOME OTHER EDIT COMMAND.
WHEN THE LINE BEING TYPED REACHES THE 30TH COLUMN THE SCREEN BLINKS. THIS FEATURE IS SIMILAR TO THE BELL ON A TYPEWRITER WHICH SIGNALS THAT IT IS TIME TO ENTER A LINE OF TEXT AND THEN BEGIN A NEW LINE. AFTER A LINE IS ENTERED IT IS STORED IN AN ARRAY FOR FUTURE REFERENCE. BLANK LINES ARE ENTERED BY PRESSING THE ENTER KEY AND ARE STORED IN THE SAME WAY. IF A LINE LONGER THAN 30 COLUMNS IS ENTERED ONLY THE FIRST 30 CHARACTER LOCATIONS OF THE LINE WILL BE STORED AND PRINTED ON THE SCREEN. BEFORE ANY LINE IS WRITTEN AND ENTERED YOU CAN CAUSE THE PROGRAM TO REVERT TO THE MENU BY KEYING “*M” AND THEN ENTER. THE PROGRAM WILL ALSO RETURN TO MENU IF THE LINE COUNTER “K” IS > THAN 200. UNDER THE LATTER CONDITION THE INVERSE VIDEO PROMPT WILL FLASH INFORMING YOU THAT THERE ARE NO MORE LINES AVAILABLE. THIS CONDITION CAN BE REMEDIED BY EXERCISING THE OPTION “CLEAR”.
AFTER YOU ENTER A BODY OF TEXT YOU MAY PROOFREAD IT. THIS IS WHERE THE “READ/EDIT” OPTION COMES IN. ON A PER LINE BASIS THE TEXT THAT WAS WRITTEN WILL BE DISPLAYED ON THE SCREEN IN SCROLL FASHION. AFTER A LINE IS PRINTED YOU HAVE 3 SECONDS TO READ AND DECIDE IF THE LINE NEEDS EDITING. IF IT DOES NOT THEN THE NEXT LINE WILL BE PRINTED, AND SO ON. IF IT DOES NEED EDITING YOU THEN PRESS THE ENTER KEY TO OBTAIN THE EDIT MODE.
THE TEXT EDITOR IS THE HEART OF THE PROGRAM. IT HAS 10 DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS. FIRST, THERE IS THE FUNCTION “CONTINUE”, WHICH IS GENERATED BY ENTERING “*G”. THIS FUNCTION ALLOWS THE TEXT TO COMMENCE BEING READ AFTER IT WAS STOPPED FROM SCROLLING UP THE SCREEN WHEN EDIT MODE WAS ACCESSED. SECOND, YOU MAY “REPLACE” AN ENTIRE LINE OF TEXT BY ENTERING “*R”. AFTER THIS SYMBOL APPEARS ON THE SCREEN YOU TYPE AND ENTER THE NEW LINE. THIRD, THERE IS A “CHANGE” FUNCTION THAT PERMITS ONE OR MORE WORDS, SYMBOLS OR SPACES TO BE MODIFIED. AFTER THE COMMAND “*C” IS ENTERED YOU ENTER THE BLOCK OF CHARACTERS YOU WANT TO REMOVE FROM THE TEXT. NEXT YOU PLACE THE CURSOR UNDER THE SECOND CHARACTER LOCATION, FIRST TO THE RIGHT, FROM THE PLACE ON THE LINE THAT YOU WANT TO REPLACE THE OLD WORD OR EXPRESSION WITH A NEW ONE. AFTER THE CURSOR IS PROPERLY LOCATED THE SYMBOL “/” IS TYPED WITH THE NEW WORD OR EXPRESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING. NOW KEY ENTER AND YOU WILL HAVE YOUR CORRECTION PROPERLY RECORDED. FOURTH, YOU MAY “DELETE” A LINE THAT IS FIRST ABOVE THE ENTER LINE BY KEYING “*D” WHILE IN THE EDIT MODE WITHOUT LEAVING ANY GAPS BETWEEN LINES. FIFTH, A NEW LINE CAN BE “INSERTED” AFTER ONE LINE OR BETWEEN TWO LINES WITHOUT ERASING ANY PREEXISTING LINES OF THE TEXT. YOU TYPE IN THE SYMBOL “*I” THEN AFTER IT APPEARS TYPE AND ENTER THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW LINE. SIXTH, BY ENTERING “*T” THE TEXT WILL BEGIN TO BE DISPLAYED FROM THE START. SEVENTH, ANY LINE BEING WORKED ON BY THE EDITOR MUST ALWAYS BE THE FIRST LINE ABOVE THE ENTER LINE. TO ASSIST IN PUTTING A LINE INTO THIS PLACE FOR EDITING A “LIST” FUNCTION IS AVAILABLE. AFTER “*L” IS KEYED AND ENTERED THE LINE NUMBER OF THE FIRST LINE ABOVE THE ENTER LINE IS DISPLAYED. IT IS THEN A MATTER OF COUNTING FROM THAT LINE NUMBER UPWARD OR DOWNWARD TO DETERMINE THE NUMBER OF THE LINE YOU ENTER IN ORDER TO BRING IT INTO POSITION FOR EDITING. THE LINE NUMBER YOU TRY TO LIST CANNOT BE < THAN 1, > 200 OR > THAN THE LAST LINE THAT WAS WRITTEN WHEN IN WRITE MODE OR ELSE THE PROGRAM WILL CONTINUE TO ASK FOR A NEW LINE NUMBER ENTRY. IF YOU KEY IN 0, THEN, THE PROGRAM RETURNS TO WRITE MODE. EIGHTH, BY KEYING “*W” AND THEN ENTER THE COMPUTER RETURNS TO WRITE MODE WITHOUT ERASING THE TEXT DISPLAYED ON THE SCREEN. IT WILL BEGIN TO WRITE A NEW LINE AFTER THE LINE THAT WAS LAST WRITTEN. NINTH, THE PROGRAM INCLUDES A SPLIT-SCREEN FEATURE WHICH IS AVAILABLE WHEN THE COMMAND “*SS” IS KEYED IN DURING EDIT MODE. THIS FEATURE PERMITS TWO HALF-SCREENS IN ONE FULL PICTURE SCREEN. TEXT CAN THEN BE COMPARED ON THE BASIS OF EVERY 10 LINES WITH THE SAME EDIT FEATURES JUST DESCRIBED BEING AVAILABLE. WHEN IN SPLIT-SCREEN MODE YOU OPERATE EACH HALF-SCREEN EXACTLY AS YOU WOULD ONE FULL-SCREEN. THE ADVANTAGE OF SPLIT-SCREEN LIES IN THAT HIGHER AND LOWER PORTIONS OF A GIVEN TEXT MAY BE COMPARED TO FIND GRAMMATICAL OR SYNTACTICAL ERRORS. IT MAY ALSO BE USED TO READ/EDIT TWO DOCUMENTS SIMULTANEOUSLY. IF YOU WANT TO MOVE THE TOP-HALF YOU ENTER “T” AND TO MOVE THE BOTTOM-HALF YOU ENTER “B” AFTER 10 LINES OF TEXT ARE PRINTED ON THE RESPECTIVE SCREEN. AFTER EVERY 10 LINES THAT ARE PRINTED THE CURSOR APPEARS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN. AT THIS TIME (AND NOT WHEN THE ENTER KEY IS DEPRESSED TO ACCESS EDIT MODE) YOU HAVE THE CHOICE OF MOVING THE TOP OR BOTTOM-HALF OF THE SCREEN OR STARTING FROM THE BEGINNING TO VIEW THE TEXT BY KEYING “N” OR REVERTING TO THE MENU BY ENTERING “*M”. FINALLY, WHEN YOU WANT TO RETURN TO THE MENU YOU CAN DO SO BY ENTERING “*M” WHEN IN EDIT MODE.
THE REST OF THE OPTIONS ARE THE “PRINT”, “SAVE” AND “CLEAR” FUNCTIONS OF THE PROGRAM. THEY ARE QUITE BASIC IN WHAT THEY DO AND HOW EACH DOES WORK. HENCE, NO EXPLANATION IS NEEDED AS TO HOW TO USE THEM. JUST ENTER THE DESIGNATED NUMBER AND WAIT UNTIL THE MENU APPEARS ON THE SCREEN AGAIN. BE SURE TO TURN ON YOUR TAPE RECORDER BEFORE YOU EXECUTE THE SAVE OPTION.
THE PROGRAM IS, OF COURSE, COMPATIBLE WITH EITHER THE ZX OR TIMEX PRINTER. WITH THE ADDITION TO THE COMPUTER OF EITHER A SERIAL OR PARALLEL INTERFACE ALONG WITH A MORE SOPHISTICATED DOT-MATRIX PRINTER THE APPLICATION POSSIBILITIES FOR THIS PROGRAM ARE EVEN GREATER. THE QUALITY OF OUPUT GENERATED BY THE PROGRAM IS SOMETHING THAT DEPENDS ON THE INDIVIDUAL TASTE OF THE USER. HOWEVER, THE CONTENT OF SAID OUPUT (I.E., WHAT THE PROGRAM CAN BE USED FOR) IS GENERALLY OBVIOUS TO ANY USER.
LETTERS, REPORTS, ARTICLES, MEMOS, STANDARD FORMS, MEDIUM DISPLAYS, INSTRUCTIONS, NEWS BULLETINS, CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS, GRAPHS AND CHARTS, MANUSCRIPTS, LISTS OF CUSTOMERS OR FRIENDS OR CLUB MEMBERS, TELEPHONE AND ADDRESS DIRECTORY . . . ETC., ARE SOME OF THE MORE PERTINENT, REAL-LIFE APPLICATIONS THAT COME IMMEDIATELY TO MIND.
BESIDES ITS PRACTICAL WORTH USING THIS PROGRAM PROVIDES CERTAIN ADVANTAGES OVER THE MORE CONVENTIONAL WAYS OF DOING THE ABOVE SAID TASKS. SAVINGS IN TIME, PAPER, INK, PRINTING, PHOTOCOPIES, CORRECTING MISTAKES AND ADDING AFTERTHOUGHTS ARE JUST SOME OF THE PROCESSES HANDLED MORE EFFICIENTLY AND WITH LESS TROUBLE THAN DOING THEM EITHER THROUGH HANDWRITING OR USING A TYPEWRITER.
Word Processing: T/S-TEXT 2000™ / ZX-TEXT™
COPYRIGHT (C) 1983
ALBERT F. RODRIGUEZ
PRICE: $19.95 IN CASSETTE
COMPUTERS: ZX81, TS1000,
TS1500, TS2068
LANGUAGE: SINCLAIR BASIC
ROM/RAM: 8K/16K
LOAD NAME: "TEXT"
LOAD TIME: 6.03 MNTS.
PROGRAM LISTABLE: NO
PROGRAM LISTINGS: YES, $6.50
EXTRAS: RECORDER AND PRINTER
PROGRAM BYTES: 14,823
SYNTACTIC SUM: 424,665
A.F.R. SOFTWARE®
1605 Pennsylvania Ave., # 204
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 531-6464
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