Question & Answer Test Generator

This program is a question-and-answer quiz creator and runner. It first prompts the user to enter a set of questions and answers (up to a user-defined count), stores them in string arrays, saves the quiz to tape with autostart, then runs the quiz by presenting each question in random order, offering a hint and a second attempt before revealing the answer, and displaying a final score out of double the question count. The hint mechanism (line 330) reveals only the first and last characters of the answer, replacing the middle with dashes from the string `b$`. A single-keypress routine at lines 460–480 uses a two-phase INKEY$ loop to debounce and capture exactly one key.

Program Structure

The program is split into two distinct phases separated by a SAVE … LINE 20 at line 670, which causes the saved file to autostart at line 20 (the quiz runner). Lines 500–670 form the data-entry phase; lines 10–480 form the quiz engine. Line 9998 provides a master save of the entire program itself.

1. Initialization / entry (500–670): collects m questions, populates c$(), a$(), l(), and y(), then saves the quiz.
2. Quiz setup (10–40): resets score, fills y(n)=n as an index array for random selection without replacement, and displays all answers as a preview.
3. Main loop (60–140): randomly picks a remaining question, removes it from the pool, and drives the question/answer/hint cycle.
4. Scoring output (160–170): prints final score and stops.
5. Subroutines (400–480): “press ENTER” pause and single-keypress debounce.

Random Selection Without Replacement

Rather than shuffling, the program maintains a live index array y() of length x (initially m). At line 60 a random index z into y() is chosen; the corresponding question index q=y(z) is used, then z is removed by shifting all later elements down (lines 80–80) and decrementing x. This guarantees every question is asked exactly once.

Two-Attempt Scoring

The variable t starts at 2 and is decremented to 1 after a wrong first attempt. A correct answer scores t points (2 for first try, 1 for second), giving a maximum possible score of m*2 as shown in the final message at line 160.

Hint Generation

Line 330 constructs a masked version of the answer:

• a$(q,1) — the first character of the answer (ZX Spectrum single-character slice syntax)
• b$(1 TO l(q)-2) — a run of dashes from the pre-built string b$="---------------" (15 dashes), trimmed to the inner length
• a$(q,l(q)) — the last character

This only works correctly when the answer is at least 2 characters long; a single-character answer would produce b$(1 TO -1), an empty slice, effectively showing just the one character twice with no dashes — a minor edge-case anomaly.

Key Arrays and Dimensions

Because fixed-length string arrays pad with spaces, l(q) is stored at entry time (line 610) and used for the answer comparison slice a$(q)(TO l(q)) at line 110, avoiding false mismatches due to trailing spaces.

Single-Keypress Debounce Idiom

Lines 460–480 implement a clean two-phase key-wait. Line 460 loops while a key is already held (drain any prior keypress), then line 470 loops until a key is pressed, and line 480 captures INKEY$ into k$. This prevents the previous ENTER keypress from the INPUT statement accidentally triggering the “press ENTER to continue” check.

Answer Comparison

Line 110 compares i$ (raw INPUT) against a$(q)(TO l(q)). Because INPUT returns exactly what the user typed, this is a case-sensitive, exact-match comparison. There is no normalisation (e.g. trimming or uppercasing), so answers must be typed with the same capitalisation used at entry time.

   10 REM INITIALIZATION         
   15 REM ****run 500
   20 LET s=0: LET x=m: LET b$="---------------": LET e$="                                "
   30 FOR n=1 TO m: LET y(n)=n: NEXT n
   40 GO SUB 400: CLS : FOR n=1 TO m: PRINT AT 10,8;a$(n): PAUSE 50: CLS : NEXT n
   50 REM MAIN PROGRAM           
   60 LET z=INT (RND*x+1): LET q=y(z)
   70 LET x=x-1
   80 FOR n=z TO x: LET y(n)=y(n+1): NEXT n
   90 CLS : LET t=2
  100 PRINT AT 3,0;c$(q): INPUT i$
  110 IF i$<>a$(q)( TO l(q)) THEN GO TO 240
  120 LET s=s+t: GO TO 210
  130 GO SUB 410: CLS 
  140 IF x>0 THEN GO TO 60
  150 REM FINAL SCORE            
  160 PRINT AT 5,0;"Your score was ";s;" out of ";m*2
  170 STOP 
  200 REM PRAISE                 
  210 PRINT AT 7,0;"Well done, ";i$;" was right.";AT 9,15;e$
  220 GO TO 130
  230 REM WRONG ANSWER           
  240 IF i$="" THEN GO TO 260
  245 PRINT AT 7,0;i$;" was wrong.";e$;AT 9,0;e$
  250 GO SUB 410
  260 IF t=2 THEN GO TO 310
  270 PRINT AT 7,0;"The right answer was:";e$;AT 9,15;a$(q)
  280 GO TO 130
  300 REM HINT/SECOND TRY        
  310 LET t=1
  320 PRINT AT 7,0;"Here is a hint:";e$;AT 21,0;e$
  330 PRINT AT 9,15;a$(q,1)+b$(1 TO l(q)-2)+a$(q,l(q))
  340 GO TO 100
  400 REM ENTER TO CONTINUE      
  410 PRINT AT 21,0;"Press ENTER to continue."
  420 GO SUB 460
  430 IF CODE k$=13 THEN RETURN 
  440 GO TO 420
  450 REM SINGLE KEY INPUT      
  460 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN GO TO 460
  470 IF INKEY$="" THEN GO TO 470
  480 LET k$=INKEY$: RETURN 
  500 REM ENTER QUESTIONS/ANSWERS
  510 PRINT "How many questions?": INPUT m
  520 DIM c$(m,64): DIM a$(m,15): DIM l(m): DIM y(m)
  530 FOR q=1 TO m
  540 CLS : PRINT "Question ";q''
  550 PRINT "Type in the question or clue.": INPUT c$(q)
  560 PRINT 'c$(q)''"Type in the answer.": INPUT i$
  570 PRINT 'i$;AT 20,0;"If satisfactory, type s.","  To delete, type d."
  580 GO SUB 460
  590 IF k$="d" THEN GO TO 540
  600 IF k$<>"s" THEN GO TO 580
  610 LET l(q)=LEN i$: LET a$(q)=i$
  620 NEXT q
  650 REM SAVE AND RUN           
  660 CLS : INPUT "What is the program name?";p$
  670 SAVE p$ LINE 20
 9998 SAVE "QUEST&ANSW" LINE 1