Weekly Taping Schedule

This program creates a weekly VCR or audio tape recording schedule, collecting day, start time, end time, channel number, and program name for multiple entries displayed in a formatted table on screen. It draws a decorative border using Spectrum block graphics characters at startup, then uses a row counter variable to position each new schedule entry correctly in the table. After all entries are recorded, the user is prompted to send the schedule to a printer via the COPY command. The program enforces a maximum of 12 characters for program names and 3 characters for day abbreviations using LEN checks. A SAVE with auto-run and a VERIFY sequence at lines 9998–9999 are included for distribution.

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Program Analysis

Program Structure

The program is organized into three broad phases: initialization and title display (lines 100–240), the data-entry loop (lines 250–485), and the print/exit phase (lines 490–9000). A SAVE/VERIFY block at lines 9998–9999 handles distribution. There are no subroutines; all flow is managed with GO TO and a single loop counter variable C.

Screen Layout and Border Drawing

Lines 200–230 draw a decorative border across the top of the screen using Spectrum block-graphic escape sequences. Line 200 uses \:' (▙) and \''\ (▀) characters to form the top edge, line 210 draws the sides with \: (▌) and \ : (▐), and line 220 draws the bottom edge with \:. (▟) and \.. (▄) sequences. The title “WEEKLY TAPING SCHEDULE” is then overlaid at AT 1,3, sitting within the border region.

Data Entry Loop

The counter C starts at 1 and is incremented by 1 at line 480 for each entry. Each field is printed at row C+7, so the first record appears at row 8 (0-indexed). The columns are fixed for each field:

• Day (D$): column 0
• Start time (S$): column 5
• End time (E$): column 12
• Channel (X$): column 17
• Program name (P$): column 20

These columns align with the header printed at line 250: "DAY START END CH. PROGRAM ".

Input Validation

Two input fields have length checks. Line 285 re-prompts if LEN D$>3, enforcing three-letter day abbreviations. Line 410 silently truncates program names longer than 12 characters using a slice expression (P$(1 TO 12)), rather than re-prompting. No validation is applied to the time or channel fields, so they accept arbitrary strings.

Prompt Area Management

The program reserves row 1 as a prompt area. The string C$ (30 spaces, initialized at line 110) is printed at AT 1,1 before each new prompt to erase the previous message. This is a common Spectrum BASIC technique for in-place screen updates without a full CLS.

Copy and Exit

After all entries are complete, lines 490–540 ask whether the user wants a printed copy. If “Y”, a heading is printed at row 1 and COPY dumps the screen to a printer. If “N”, execution jumps directly to STOP at line 9000. No handling is provided for responses other than “Y” or “N”; the program falls through to COPY regardless if B$ is neither, since both conditions at lines 510 and 530 are independent IF tests rather than an IF/ELSE construct.

Notable Bugs and Anomalies

• Missing clear before channel prompt: Line 371 clears the prompt area before the channel prompt, but line 390 (program name prompt) does not clear it first — the channel prompt text remains visible while the program name is being entered.
• Counter incremented before loop test: C is incremented at line 480 before the IF A$="Y" check at line 485. If the user answers “N”, the counter is still incremented, which is harmless since no further entries are written, but wastes the last row position.
• No row overflow guard: The screen has 22 rows; with the header at row 7 and entries starting at row 8, only 14 entries fit before AT C+7,0 would scroll or wrap. There is no check to prevent this.
• Case-sensitive input: The comparisons at lines 485, 510, and 530 test only for uppercase “Y” and “N”. Lowercase responses are silently ignored or cause unexpected behavior.

Save and Verify Block

Line 9998 saves the program with LINE 1 so it auto-runs from line 100. Line 9999 performs a PAUSE 180 to allow tape rewind time, prints a reminder message, pauses again for 400 frames, then executes VERIFY "TAPE SCHED" to confirm the save was successful — a practical workflow commonly included in distributed Spectrum programs.