Extensions

Being a band director, I often made printouts of my students by instrument. First I would print all the flute players, then clarinets, etc. However, I always had SEARCH IS COMPLETE printed in between each section. Also, I use a number of codes in my files, so to help me keep track of their meaning…

I Kind of hate to say this, but I’m going to change the way we save data only. There are several reasons for this. First, it insures better compatibility with any changes Tom Woods may come up with because the order of the main variables will be restored to their original status. Second, it will…

Combining files is another of those routines which can change the way you approach PRO/FILE. In my case, I have lists of band music for Georgia. There are 6 lists, but there is only enough room in the program for 2 at a time. Originally I had one file containing lists 1 and 2, another…

The display menu and edit menu each consist of several sections. | prefer to see as many options at one time as possible. Also, if you have a long search command (more than one line long) you will run into a problem with the screen SCROLL. These changes solve both situations and save about 350…

The cursor always appears in the top left hand corner when editing so if to want to edit data in the lower right corner you must do a lot of cursor movement. This routine allows you to move from the top line to the bottom by moving the cursor UP and from the left side…

When adding or editing a file you can close it using the token ” TO ” and you will go to a blank screen where you can add another file instead of returning to the menu.

The original version of this routine does not really go to the next matching file although in most cases it has that effect. In reality it starts a new search from the beginning, but since the edited file is now at the end of the file space, the program does seem to go to the…

Two lines need fixing in this issue of Extensions #3. If you use the new data save in this issue, you must also change line 1080 (I left it out, sorry). If you don’t make this correction, you will be able to edit the file which says “SEARCH IS COMPLETE” which will cause all kinds…

The following is only for those who have added the TALLY routine from the manual AND the MACHINE CODE SORT routine from Tom Woods’ Breakthrough newsletter. When the mc sort is added to a program containing the tally function two bugs appear. The first and most important is that you can no longer do an…

If you will be making a lot of new files which will have some information identical to each other, here is a way to make just one and then duplicate it as often as you wish.

Before we get too involved with making changes let’s provide a simple way to make backups of your master program (that is an empty basic program and machine code).

This is not a very good name, but what it does is allow you to do a search and then begin a new search from the next file. Why? Well, suppose you were printing out files and your printer went haywire half way through. Normally you would have to start all over, but with this…

At the end of line 5040 there is a delay loop in some versions which I have found to be unnecessary in my experience. You can simply delete the section.

You may also prefer to have the name reverse routine operate on a line different from line 1. Any change on this must become a permanent change in the program unlike the previous improvement which allows a selection process.

The following changes allow you to input a set number of characters (up to 32) which will be added to a file in any position at the press of two keys (symbol shift and “I” which results in “AT”).

If you purchased a Spectrum emulator like myself you may prefer to use PRO/FILE in Spectrum mode. I use the ROM Switch but I assume this should work with any emulator or a regular Spectrum. If you have added Sinclair microdrives, I have added routines for their use as well. I use them regularly and…

There are many situations where you want the last name listed first for alphabetizing purposes, but would prefer any printout to be in normal order. The next routine will allow you to print out any name on the first line in either order you prefer. The screen will not change and your files will be…

We will use H = 2, K = 10, Q = 32, and R = 256. All these are added to line 9996.

The use of variables, the VAL function, and the CODE function will allow you to save almost 2000 bytes as done below. Actually, more could be saved with more variables, but I limited it to the most useful values.

Here’s a little item which doesn’t seem very useful at first, but 1Irefer to it all the time now. In the first file (the one that says “SEARCH IS COMPLETE”) I 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…

I needed a different type of routine for number crunching instead of the TALLY routine. Basically, I needed an entire line to be treated as one value instead of half and half, and 1 needed some of the answer printed out if necessary. The following is the result. I call it the SUM routine and…

When I was limited to one line, I made little use of the SUM routine and no use of TALLY. Now I can set up a file for each of my products which I sell in a year. Each line could represent a different month’s sales and by searching and calculating the appropriate line I…

On the original PRO/FILE you could only save the data with the basic part of the program. It required you to load in a master program at first to get the machine code section but didn’t have the speed advantage of only saving the data. This section allows you to save ALL (including machine code…

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).

When at the main menu, enter a search command that ends with the reverse slash and the letter “U”. The program will then ask what line you wish to change followed by what data will be changed, and then ask for the new data. When all that information has been entered, the program will find…