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The Basix Fanzine issue 06
Rev 2
_____-----~~~~~-----_____-----~~~~~-----_____-----~~~~~-----_____-----~~~~~
THE BASIX FANZINE
Edited by Peter Cooper
Issue 6
_____-----~~~~~-----_____-----~~~~~-----_____-----~~~~~-----_____-----~~~~~
peco@trenham.demon.co.uk
INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to the sixth issue of the Basix Fanzine whether you are reading
this as HTML, text from USENET, text from an archive or using our brand
new special FanRead viewer! If you don't have this reader and you want to
learn more please check Section 4, Part 1.
We also have two new series this week. As well as the CD-ROM series we
now have a full series on BASIC demo coding full of useful effects. If
you wish to submit ideas for the coding series please do. If you have
actually written a demo, please send it in.
We also have a series about palettes and related topics, these were
made by Joe Lawrence (lawrencej@ufrsd.k12.nj.us)
Enjoy the read!
Cheers! {:o)
==============================================================================
Contents Page
==============================================================================
SECTION ONE) - Specialized Articles
- Part [a] Series
1) CDROM Series Continuation of CD Programming QkBasic,VBDOS,PDS
2) Coderz Series Coding combo sine wave effects QBasic+
3) Palettes Joe Lawrences palettes and color QBasic+
- Part [b] Topics and Articles
1) The Gurus! Interviews with the Basic Gurus N/A
2) BASIC Tutor Final instalment of the tutorials QBasic+
SECTION TWO) - General Articles
1) Useful sources Places to get basic stuff on inet Various
2) Money Wise How to make your money in BASIC N/A
3) Competition UD Update on the competition (who?) N/A
SECTION THREE) - The Public Zone
1) Letters Your comments and questions Various
2) Your programs All of your programs.. here! Various
SECTION FOUR) - Administration and Usual Stuff
1) Latest developments
2) How do you contribute?
3) How do you contact the author?
4) Credits
5) Last words + next month
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- SECTION ONE -----------------------------------------------------------------
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Specialized articles:
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 1 PART A SUBPART 1 | CD Programming Part 2 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part 2: Getting System Information and Using Request Headers/Command Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome back!
Well, well, well! Another issue has passed and you are still interested in
programming your CD-ROM drive. Last time we stopped after we got the MSCDEX
Version Number using interrupt &H2F with AX=&H150C. That's how we reference
all these interrupt functions. Now it's time to expand our repertoire of
MSCDEX interrupt calls, especially getting more information about the computer
system. Sure, most of the time a CD-ROM drive is located on D:, but what if
someone has it on E:, F: or even Z:. One way would be to just prompt the user
for his/her CD-ROM drive letter, but we can actually determine the number of
the first drive via another interrupt function. You might wonder what a drive
number is, but it's a fairly simple concept. Since computers are number based
all of these functions will reference drives by numbers, drive A: is 0, drive
B: is 1, C: is 2, etc. No sweat! The call uses interrupt &H2F with AX=&H1500
and returns the number of the first CD-ROM drive in register CX. The BASIC
code looks like this.
' Get first CD-ROM drive number
inregsx.ax = &H1500 ' Referencing the CD function
inregsx.cx = &H0 ' Clear register CX
CALL interruptx(&H2F, inregsx, outregsx) ' Call interrupt &H2F
drv% = outregsx.cx ' Store drive number in drv%
Wow, it doesn't get any easier than this. Actually the entire CD-ROM thing is
very simple, once you find the right documentation. How else would you know
the values for the registers? Since I feel we are on a roll here, let's make
another one of these interrupt calls. The next one will check whether the
drive referenced by the number in drv% si supported by MSCDEX. This is done
using AX=&H150B and BX containing the drive number. The interrupt returns a
value of &HADAD in register BX if the drive is supported, so this is another
fairly simple matter of plugging the right values in the correct registers.
' CD-ROM Drive Check
inregsx.ax = &H150B ' Again referencing the CD function
inregsx.bx = &H0 ' Clear BX
inregsx.cx = drv% ' Set CX equal to the first drive
CALL interruptx(&H2F, inregsx, outregsx) ' Call interrupt &H2F
' Check the value of the BX register after the interrupt call
IF outregsx.bx <> &HADAD THEN
PRINT "Drive "; CHR$(drv% + 65); ": is not supported by MSCDEX!"
END
END IF
NOTE: The program will only use the first CD-ROM drive, since it decreases the
size of the code tremendously. If you would like to use another drive,
then just set drv% equal to its drive number at this point.
Now that we have covered some of the most useful simple interrupt functions,
it's time to move on to bigger and better things. Whenever using any hardware
one should always RESET it before use, so that's what we'll do next. Hold on
a second, though, this is not as easy as it sounds. All the remaining
interrupt functions that we'll cover in the guide will use AX=&H1510.
According to the documentation, this function is used to send a `Device Driver
Request.' It will need the following register values to work:
AX = &H1510
CX = CD-ROM drive number (In our case the value in drv%)
ES = Segment of CD-ROM device driver request header
BX = Offset of CD-ROM device driver request header
Yikes! What is a request header? A request header contains values that the
interrupt function needs in order to know what it is doing and how it is
supposed to do it. That's about as simple as I can make it! Usually, these
request headers are stored in arrays, so ES:BX points to the address in memory
of the array containing the header. The request header for the RESET function
will be an array that is 26 bytes long, so we will use this line:
' Reset Drive
DIM rh(25) AS STRING * 1 '25 + 1 * 1 byte = 26 bytes
Since the request header will also access it's own control block of length 1,
we better invoke the following line. A control block is almost exactly like a
request header, so this next line should make sense:
DIM cb(0) AS STRING * 1 'STRING * 1 is one byte long
All right, now we plug those critical values into our arrays. As you can see,
there are many unused offsets in the array, but they should not concern us.
Explaining all the fields in the array would be over-kill at this point, so
I'll just give you the code and what it means in remarks. This should clear
some things up and make the entire thing easy to read. So ... Let's get down
to it!
' Creating the control block for the RESET function
cb(0) = CHR$(2) 'IOCTL Output control block code: 2 is RESET
' Now we write the information for the request header
rh(0) = CHR$(26) 'Length of request header in bytes
rh(2) = CHR$(12) 'Request header command code field: 12 is IOCTL Output
rh(14) = CHR$(lbyte%(VARPTR(cb(0)))) 'Lowbyte of offset for control block
rh(15) = CHR$(hbyte%(VARPTR(cb(0)))) 'Highbyte of offset for control block
rh(16) = CHR$(lbyte%(VARSEG(cb(0)))) 'Lowbyte of segment for control block
rh(17) = CHR$(hbyte%(VARSEG(cb(0)))) 'Highbyte of segment for control block
rh(18) = CHR$(0) 'Number of bytes to transfer;Highbyte
rh(19) = CHR$(1) 'Number of bytes to transfer;Lowbyte
' Time to call interrupt &H2F
inregsx.ax = &H1510
inregsx.es = VARSEG(rh(0)) 'Segment of request header
inregsx.bx = VARPTR(rh(0)) 'Offset of request header
inregsx.cx = drv% 'Drive number
CALL interruptx(&H2F, inregsx, outregsx)
Wew! This is all I can get into this part of the guide, otherwise Peter is
probably going to club me really, really hard! Next time I'll explain all this
request header stuff once more, since that's what we are going to keep on
using.
_Just for fun_: Replace the 2 in the IOCTL Output command code field
with a 0!
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 1 PART A SUBPART 2 | Coderz Series |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to this new series. If you want to create impressive looking effects
from QBasic possibly for demos, effects for games or just to learn a bit
of math then keep reading, if you want to improve your databases or learn
some Mode-X routines then steer clear :) This series primarily goes through
the theory of creating various effects such as plasma, tunnels etc and then
presents source code which shows a way these could be done in QBasic, but
they will probably not be optimized but that will make a good exercise for
you the reader, you could also convert them into Mode-X or various other
screen modes.
So lets move straight onto our Plasma.
____________________
- Plasma -----------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are going to be constructing a _sort_ of plasma. Ok, strictly it may not
be a plasma but it produces some plasma like patterns and with some palette
rotations it can look very effective! We are going to use our old friend
the Sine Wave. Without going into the theory of how sines waves are what
they are I will explain briefly.. The sinewave goes in a range of -1 to 1
going through 0 as a middle point, a width of sine wave is 360 degrees. We
can get the y position of the sine wave at any of these 360 points by using
the SIN command. Unfortunately the SIN command requires the input in Radians
but we can convert degrees to radians by multiplying the degrees by 0.017453
So, to get the Y position of the sine wave at 90 degrees we would use this:
PRINT SIN(90*0.017453)
and it would give us an answer near to 1.
Fig 1========================================================================
+1| / \
| / \
| / \
| / \
| / \
0|/ \ /
| \ /
| \ /
| \ /
| \ /
-1| \ /
dgs 0 90 180 270 360
=============================================================================
Of course, using a scale of -1 to +1 is a bit limited in my opinion and it
requires a bit of multiplication and addition so that we can get a range of
something like 0 to 100 with 50 being the mid point. To make this so:
PRINT (SIN(dg%*0.017453)*50)+50
We can actually draw a sine wave on our screens. To do this try this:
SCREEN 13
FOR x% = 0 to 360
PSET (x%, ( SIN(x%*0.017453)*50 )+50),15
NEXT x%
But we have one major problem. A sine wave is 360 degrees wide but our mode
13 is only 320 pixels wide. We'll get an error. So what we'll do is just
scale down the x% into another variable called xx%
SCREEN 13
FOR x% = 0 to 360
xx% = (x% /360)*320
PSET (xx%, ( SIN(x%*0.017453)*50 )+50),15
NEXT x%
If you run this you'll discover the sinewave goes from middle to a bottom
then up to a top and then back down to the middle.. Then you'll see our Fig1
and think, hang on, he's got it round the wrong way.. No, we havn't it's
just because on our chart the higher the number the higher it is, but on
the computer screen it is the opposite, ok?
Ok, so now we have a sinewave. The sinewave has _amplitude_, this is what
the range is, in our case it is 0 to 100. If the range was 0 to 50 it'd have
a lower amplitude. Our sinewave also has _frequency_, this is basically
how many sinewaves we can fit in a certain amount of space, if instead of
there being only one wave across the screen there was two then we could say
that has more frequency, or a _higher_ frequency.
We can also _mix_ sinewaves. For example we can mix sinewaves that have
different frequencies. To be able to add this lets simplify our program
so far:
SCREEN 13
FOR x% = 0 to 360
xx% = (x% /360)*320
rd = (x% * 0.017453)
srd = SIN(rd)
PSET (xx%, ( srd*50 )+50),15
NEXT x%
This program will work just as normal. Now, we want to _mix_ two sinewaves,
how can we do this? Ok, what we can do is take our normal sinewave and mix
it with one with a higher frequency! We can do his this by taking the line:
srd = SIN(rd)
which only creates a single wave and "add" another wave with a different
frequency into it and then average out the pair, like so:
srd = (SIN(rd)+SIN(rd*1.8))/2
If you make that adjustment and run the program you'll get a wave which
looks more random and out of control and this is what makes good patterns.
Of course you can mix three sinewaves, just add in the relevant SIN and
change the 2 to 3. Simple. You could also speed up the program by using
lookup tables or other tricks. But this is not about optimization, we are
concerned with theory and getting it to work.
So what has this got to do with colorful patterns and plasma then? you may
be asking. Well the sinewaves give us something to create interesting
palette setups with. To be able to demonstrate this better lets adjust the
program so far so that it goes in a range of 0 to 63 which is what the
palette uses.
SCREEN 13
FOR x% = 0 to 360
xx% = (x% /360)*320
rd = (x% * 0.017453)
srd = (SIN(rd)+SIN(rd*2.8))/2
PSET (xx%, ( srd*31 )+31),15
NEXT x%
Notice I've changed the 1.8 to a 2.8 in the 2nd sinewave, this just makes
the wave more "wild", now we have a sinewave that can be used on a palette.
Lets have a go. Lets use this sinewave to adjust the palette in colors 1 to
100.
SCREEN 13
FOR x% = 0 to 360
xx% = (x% /360)*100 ' notice the change to 100 to scale to 100
rd = (x% * 0.017453)
srd = (SIN(rd)+SIN(rd*2.8))/2
OUT &H3C8,xx%+1
OUT &H3C9,(srd * 31)+31
OUT &H3C9,0
OUT &H3C9,0
NEXT x%
Now this creates a fine palette, lets see it in action! Add the following
code to the end:
FOR x% = 1 TO 100
FOR y% = 1 TO 100
PSET (x%, y%), (x%+y%)/2
NEXT y%
NEXT x%
Now we have a great little effect.
In Closing
~~~~~~~~~~
Next Issue we'll finish off with this, it's a very wide topic. You can
adjust our program so far for different color types, fade from red to blue,
For example: if you replace the first OUT &H3C9,0 with
OUT &H3C9,63-((srd * 31)+31)
you'll get a red and green fading mixture. Feel free to send me any
improvements and feel free to use the code, it's all theory that anyone can
work out so feel free to take the code and dream up some things with it..
You should see it with palette rotations, it looks great. I'll also show you
how to create FAR better effects using this sine wave method, but using TWO
completely separate sinewave constructions, one for X axis and one for Y..
See if you can do it.
Maybe I'll include some better programs with it next month.
Next month: Finishing sines, Tunnels
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 1 PART A SUBPART 3 | Palette Coding |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***Palettes in Qbasic***
Introduction: This is a new series from Joe Lawrence. Part A is in this
issue of the fanzine. Part B is for next issue. Take it away
Joe!
Table of Contents
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part A - Documentation
1.) Introduction, Screen Modes
2.) The PALETTE Function
3.) Using Ports to optimize palette functions
Part B - Building Palette routines
1.) Introduction to Palette routines
2.) PalRGBSet()
3.) PalGradient()
4.) PalSave()
5.) PalLoad()
6.) PalRestore()
7.) PalBrighten()
8.) PalDarken()
9.) PalRGBPower()
10.) PalRotate()
11.) PalMorph()
12.) PalFade()
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Part A, Subject One Introduction, Screen Modes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now for a little introduction. Hi I'm Joe Lawrence, webfreak residing
at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/2323/, and of course,
Qbasic programmer. My homepage features QBasic programming content, so stop
by sometime. All e-mail can be slung towards lawrencej@ufrsd.k12.nj.us
Enough about me, let's get going...
As you most likely know, there are numerous screen modes which to
work with in Qbasic. Most popular are: screen 7 & 9, both boasting multiple
video pages, screen 12, featuring 640x480 sharp resolution, and my
favorite, screen 13 with 256 colors. Although 307200 pixels sound tempting,
we'll be using screen 13, since we're focusing on colors, not resolution.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Part A, Subject Two The PALETTE Function
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, now we get into the coding bit. I assume you have decent
knowledge of graphic functions, like line, circle, etc. You'll also have to
be capable of VGA graphics, which most people know have. (If you're not
sure, try anyway.) Okay, here's an example of the PALETTE function...
SCREEN 13
PALETTE 15, 63
PRINT "The text is now red!"
SLEEP
SCREEN 0: SYSTEM
Let's break the program down. First we change to screen 13,
320x200x256. Then we change color 15's value to 63. See the palette is an
array of colors. Color 1 has a value, blue, Color 2 has another, etc.
(Don't worry about where I got 63 from, I'll explain it in a minute...)
After we changed the color, we printed something out, waited for a key-
press, then reset the video mode and quit. Now let's breakdown the palette
statement...
PALETTE color, value
The first argument, color, is which color to change. In the example I
changed color 15, which is normally white. Value, the second argument, is
the new color we'd like to see in place of argument one (color). The
formula, is this:
value = 65536 * Blue + 256 * Green + Red
The blue, green, and red variables are the measure of blue, green,
and red hue in the new color. Possible values for the hues range from 0 to
63, where 0 is none and 63 is full. For example, if I wanted to change
color 15 from white to purple, here's what I would do...
SCREEN 13
Blue = 63: Red = 63: Green = 0
value = 65536 * Blue + 256 * Green + Red
PALETTE 15, value
PRINT "Color 15 is now purple!"
SLEEP
SCREEN 0: SYSTEM
Neat tricks can be done with the PALETTE function, try this example
on for size... (Note, you may have to change the delay. For reference, 1000
works good on a Pentium 100.)
SCREEN 13
PRINT "Color 15 is in flux!"
DO
FOR Blue = 63 to 0 step -1
value = 65536 * Blue + 256 * Green + Red
PALETTE 15, value
For Delay = 1 to 1000: NEXT
NEXT
FOR Red = 63 to 0 step -1
value = 65536 * Blue + 256 * Green + Red
PALETTE 15, value
For Delay = 1 to 1000: NEXT
NEXT
FOR Green = 63 to 0 step -1
value = 65536 * Blue + 256 * Green + Red
PALETTE 15, value
For Delay = 1 to 1000: NEXT
NEXT
LOOP UNTIL INKEY$ <> ""
SLEEP
SCREEN 0: SYSTEM
By simply decreasing each hue by one, then changing the color, we get
a nice, smooth fading effect.
In conclusion, although I've only changed text, and color 15, you can
certainly play around with changing graphics and other colors. (Remember
though, that the PALETTE statement changes a colors RGB value even if it is
already plotted.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Part A, Subject 3 Three Using Ports to optimize palette functions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PALETTE function is sufficient enough to handle a color here, a
color there, etc. If you plan to do any significant color manipulation,
however, PALETTE is simply not going to cut it. So we do instead of letting
Qbasic do the work for us, we'll do it ourselves by accessing the VGA card
directly, creating much needed speed. Although using the ports take an extra
step or two, the results out weigh your time. For a taste, try this program
on for size.
SCREEN 13
StartTime = TIMER
LOCATE 1, 1: PRINT "PALETTE Time: "
FOR N = 1 TO 10000
value = 65536 * INT(RND * 63) + 256 * INT(RND * 63) + INT(RND * 63)
PALETTE 15, value
LOCATE 1, 15: PRINT USING "##.##"; TIMER - StartTime
NEXT
StartTime = TIMER
LOCATE 2, 1: PRINT "Port Time: "
FOR N = 1 TO 10000
OUT &H3C8, 15
OUT &H3C9, INT(RND * 63)
OUT &H3C9, INT(RND * 63)
OUT &H3C9, INT(RND * 63)
LOCATE 2, 15: PRINT USING "##.##"; TIMER - StartTime
NEXT
This program changes the values of 10000 colors, first with PALETTE,
then with the ports. Although the time difference may seem insignificant,
when using fading effects, time racks up.
Okay, now how do these port things work, you ask? Simple. The syntax
for porting is simply OUT port, data. In this case, we use hexadecimal &H3C8
to tell the VGA card to prepare this color for RGB data. Then we use &H3C9 to
change that color's RGB values. Remember, though to always change them in
this order: Red, Green, then Blue. Now what if you'd like to get a color's
RGB values? Simply use var = INP (&H3C9) . Here's an example...
SCREEN 13
' Change color zero to purple
OUT &H3C8, 0 ' Point to color
OUT &H3C9, 63 ' Send RGB values
OUT &H3C9, 0
OUT &H3C9, 63
' Read color zero's Red, Green, and Blue values
OUT &H3C8, 0 ' Point to color
red = INP (&H3C9) ' Get RGB values
green = INP (&H3C9)
blue = INP (&H3C9)
' Print out the values
PRINT "Red: "; red; " Green: "; green; " Blue: "; blue
END
All this short program does is change color 0, the background, to
bright purple. Then it goes and "asks" the VGA card what color 0's RGB values
are. In this case, bright purple consists of 63 red and 63 blue. (Remember
their are only 63 hues, so 63 would equal 100%.) Here's a little VGA quirk
discovered by the authors of Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus... "I found
a little problem with the VGA card in reading a palette register. It seems
that the register you request is not the one you get all the time. This bug
is hardware-specific and manifests itself on some VGA cards. For no, my
solution is to read each color register twice. That seems to fix it..."
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 1 PART B SUBPART 1 | Interviews with some Gurus |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here thinking of new ideas for the fanzine I decided to pick some of the
finest of BASIC gurus from the newsgroups each week and interview them.
For this issue, Dave Navarro (employee at PowerBasic) and Douggie Green
(author of both BASIC FAQs). More interviews coming soon we hope: <grin>
First, we have:
=================
DOUGGIE GREEN
=================
Fanzine: What first sparked off your interest in computers and what was your
first one, and possibly when?
Douggie: I was in my early twenties, bored and looking for something more
interesting than working in local government or shipping and my
brother mentioned that the college where he was doing electronic
engineering was starting computer programming courses. So, I
went to the library and got a book on BASIC (pure '64 Dartmouth)
and taught myself, dry running simple programs on paper, by hand
before I even saw a keyboard! I didn't buy a computer until
after the one year course, and then I bought a BBC 'B', which I
considered state-of-the-art then, and it is still probably the
best 8-bit machine ever.
Fanzine: Very very true Douggie, I still have one in the shack here, although
not in use! So, was that your first programming experience and when
abouts was this? Did you have any major programs to write?
Douggie: It was about 1980. I was doing two programming courses in
parallel, one needed three programs to be written (one was a
simple arcade game on a PET), the other needed a serious
application program written to a fairly rigid design.I chose the
student registration project, which involved screen design, data
capture techniques (I was using inkey$ even then), data storage
(single-sided 5 1/4 floppies), sorting (done disk to disk) and
data search and retreival. It ended up as a suite of programs
linked by a menu. Not bad, if I say so myself :) It was all
written on a Tandy model II in a BASIC very similar to what
became MS Basic, with support for random access files and fixed
length records.
Fanzine: Ah ok! :) So, did you have any other job options besides in the
computer industry?
Douggie: A few, but none particularly attractive apart from a brief foray
into club management in the mid '80s.
Fanzine: Hmm. Sounds interesting <g>. So, What other languages except
BASIC do you know?
Douggie: Fluently, none. I have a working knowledge of 'C', and have
written a few short (less than 500 lines) programs. I've dabbled
with Pascal a few times, mostly because I thought I should :) I
have to turn out the odd bit of DBase code for my brother
(currently production manager at an electronic engineering firm).
I've done a fair bit of assembly in my time and still find it
satisfying to trim a few bytes from a routine, or knock off a
few clock cycles.
Fanzine: Nice to know that there are still some people who get satisfaction
out of trimming clock cycles off of routines! My putpixel used to be
a 175 clock thing, it went down to 100, then 80, then 50 and now its
48 or something.. :) So, Do you have a partner? And if so, then what
do they think about your computing interests?
Douggie: I am currently un-attached :(
Fanzine: Whoa, Ok then. So how long have you been on the comp.lang.basic.misc
newsgroup?
Douggie: About 18 months, I think.
Fanzine: Hmm, only a few months before I got there heh. So, which BASIC do you
usually use for programming or is there a mixture?
Douggie: I'll often try something out in QBasic before taking it to
QB4.5, which I use for any commercial work. I've got copies of
most of the available (shareware/freeware/public domain) BASICs,
and try them out as and when time allows. I like ASIC, although
I haven't had time to try out 5.0 yet. I've also played with
VB4Win and VB4Dos, and VB4Dos is now on my 'to get' list.
Fanzine: Thanks for the interview. I bought VB4Dos when it first came out,
for roughly err 79 pounds which is about $120. They never released
another version and yet still people want to buy it. :) If I can
put the disks back in the original box I'll probably sell it. Ok.
Cheers, and thank you once again.
Douggie: You're welcome, :)
Readers: you are welcome to check out Douggies homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2124
=================
DAVE NAVARRO
=================
Fanzine: Hi Dave, so what started your computer interests and what sort of
kit did you get?
Dave: When I was 9 years old and living in Dallas Texas my father was
given a prototype of the TRS Model 80 computer by Radio Shack
(serial number 8). He was a business owner and they wanted him
to use the computer along with some software they gave him to
see if it helped make running his business easier.
After the survey was over (it actually slowed him down because
of the time it took to store and retrieve data on cassette tape)
he brought the computer home. One day he showed me a game they
had given him where you tried to shoot down tie fighters when
they moved into your cross-hair. You pressed the "clear" key to
fire.
The "clear" key just happened to be next to the break key and one
day when I was playing the game (without my father's knowledge) I
pressed the break key by accident. The game stopped and the
computer sat there at the "Ready" prompt. I was mortified. I
thought I had broken the computer. (Isn't that what the break
key is for? To break the computer? <g>)
In a panic I called Radio Shack to see if they could help me to
fix it. The salesperson I talked to said he only knew two
commands. He said to type either "RUN" or "LIST". I typed "RUN"
and the game started back up. But I was curious about what "LIST"
did, so I hit the break key again (this time with more confidence)
and typed in "LIST". A whole bunch of words just scrolled up the
screen and when it stopped I read what hadn't scrolled off.
It as in "English!" And I actually understood some of it. I
even recognized some of the text from the game. So I
experimented with "PRINT" and it actually printed words on the
screen. From that day on, I was "hooked".
There were no books or teachers in 1976. I learned BASIC
programming completely by using "LIST" on other programs and
experimenting.
Fanzine: Wow, that sounds quite remarkable! :) Gee, if you still had that
prototype Radio Shack piece of kit then in a few years it'd be
worth a lot, dont you reckon? :) So when was your first real
meaningful program?
Dave: My first real program was written in February of 1977 (I still
have it on cassette and a print out). By then we had moved to
Oklahoma and I had visited Oklahoma University on a field trip
from school. I played a game where you thought of the name of
an animal and the computer would guess what the animal was. It
was fascinating. One of the students at the university gave me
a brief run-down on the logic and I wrote my own version at home.
By the time I finally stopped using TRS-80's I had a database of
animals on disk so large that very few people ever thought of an
animal that wasn't there.
Fanzine: <g> Elephant.. umm, anyway, so were there any jobs ever open to you
besides in the computer industry? and with PowerBasic specifically?
When I reached the seventh grade a few "gifted students" from
our junior high were allowed to take computer programming classes
over at the high school. Up until that time, I was positively
convinced that I was going to be a veteranarian(sp) because of
my love of animals. But I caught "silicon fever" and ever since
I have only wanted to be a programmer.
Fanzine: Ok, What other languages except BASIC do you know?
Dave: In high school I learned Z80 assembler. In college I learned
Ada, UCSD Pascal (for unix), and Berkeley C (for unix). When I
graduated from college I continued to use the Basic language at
Symantec, Software Publishing Corp, and Everex.
When I became a consultant in the early 90's I tought myself
Intel assembler from several books I bought and learned dBase
and Clipper so that I could bid on several projects.
Fanzine: Quite a fair range, heh. If you have a signigicant other then what
do they think about your computing interests?
I think I may be one of the luckiest men alive. I met my
fiancee through CompuServe Email. And she's the only women I've
ever dated who completely shares my love of computers. She's a
computer consultant herself and actually spends more time on her
computer than I do on mine.
Fanzine: Wow, that is amazing! The internet and related services can be useful
, including the newsgroups. How long have you been on the
comp.lang.basic.misc newsgroup?
Dave: I didn't "discover the Internet" until three years ago when I
lived in New York City. Since then I have been an off-and-on
participant. It wasn't until I came to work for PowerBASIC, Inc
that I begin to be much more active.
Fanzine: How optimistic are you about PowerBASIC, ie do you think that it
could eventually come to be one of the big names along with Delphi
and VB?
I've worked as a programmer at a number of large companies. Even
companies which are bigger players in the computer industry than
PowerBASIC, Inc. (Symantec, Software Publishing Corp, Everex and
Product Identification to name a few). But PowerBASIC, Inc. is
the first company where I actually feel at home. It has a lot
to do with my Basic programming roots. PowerBASIC is a software
company run by Basic programmers not by business execs used to
running multi - billion dollar soda companies or huge
tire-manufacturing conglomerates.
I think that PowerBASIC has a "potential" to make us all at PB,
Inc. billionaires. And while we' d all like to be rich (who
doesn't?), that's not our goal. We keep score like everyone
else, but while they do it with money, we do it with
technological innovation. We' re doing things with Basic that
everyone else said couldn't be done. And we do it because we
want to be better, not because we want to be the richest kid
on the block.
Fanzine: Unlike a certain corporation beginning with 'M'? Ok, carry on..
So I guess my answer is "yes". PowerBASIC will be as widely
known as Delphi, Visual Basic and other popular programming
languages. But not because of how many products were sold, but
because of how far we're taking the Basic language and making it
just as powerful and full-featured as the "so-called" mainstream
programming languages like C and Pascal.
Fanzine: Ok, thank you Dave. A very interesting interview. Good luck with
PowerBasic. I hope to see it as big a household name as QBasic
(what household do you live in? -ed). It's definately competition
to Microsoft and good one too. Good job.
Note to Microsoft, I'll promote your products if you dont mind sponsoring
the fanzine... well' it'd be far better then wouldnt it <g>
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 1 PART B SUBPART 2 | Basic Tutorials |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BASIC Tutorials - instalment 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you remember, last issue I gave you an assignment:
Write a program that clears the screen and then asks for the year that you
were born in. Then have it work out how old the person is and then display
it like so:
You were born in (year%) and that means that now you are (age%) old.
Let's go through this and try and write a program that would work:
CLS ' Clears the screen
INPUT "What year were you born in?",year% ' Asks for the year
age% = 1996-year%
PRINT "You were born in ";year%;" and that means that now you are ";age%;
"years old"
Of course, this wouldnt work all the time, you would also have to take the
month into account. In this example we have placed an expression to age% on
the 3rd line ' age% = 1996 - year% ' but you can also place expressions
direct into PRINT commands. For example:
PRINT "4*5+99-6*2 = "; 4 * 5 + 99 - 6 * 2
This would work perfectly fine. So you could shorten the assignment programs
last line to:
PRINT "Born in ";year%;" and now you are ";1996-year%;" years old"
As you can see the expression has been placed actually inside the PRINT
command. But in many cases this method should not be used. It can be used
in 'one-off' situations like the above because it saves having to create
another variable, but if the expression will be printed several times then
theres two reasons why you should use a variable first:
o It saves a bit of typing
o It saves time in execution
---
This is the last instalment. These tutorials were designed for the most
novice of programmers. They have dealt with *very* simple topics very slowly
in a very basic way. The tutorials were not designed to teach people how
to write demos or games, they were designed to teach the most novice
programmer the absolute basics (no pun intended) before they possibly buy
a book. Most QBasic books probably rush past this sort of stuff in the first
few pages, but now beginner programmers know for sure what to do.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- SECTION TWO -----------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All levels articles:
This is where general BASIC info is presented. People of different levels
(novice,advanced etc) can use this section to their benefit.
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 2 SUBPART 1 | Useful Resources ON THE NET!!! |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=============================================================================
The Games Programmers Encyclopedia
'If you thought you knew it all, think again! The games programmers
encyclopedia contains information on 3d programming, effects, fire,
soundcard info for many cards! and more'
GRAB it from: x2ftp.oulu.fi
/pub/msdos/programming/gpe
=============================================================================
Blood225s FTP Site
'Programs for QBasic, but very high quality ones can be found at this
site, all from a variety of authors. This site is always worth the visit'
FTP SITE : users.aol.com
/blood225
=============================================================================
Simtel
'Recently there has been some changes in SimTel, but it's still there,
I think.. :) There is a wealth of files for the public there including
files for users of Basic\QBasic. Mirrors of the site are available world
wide.
Try:
Country Host Directory
--------- ---------------------- -------------------
Australia ftp.bhp.com.au /pub/simtelnet
France ftp.ibp.fr /pub/simtelnet
Germany ftp.rz.uni-wuerzburg.de /pub/pc/simtelnet
South Africa ftp.sun.ac.za /pub/simtelnet
UK, London ftp.demon.co.uk /pub/simtelnet
UK, London sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk /packages/simtelnet
US, California ftp.cdrom.com /pub/simtelnet
US, Michigan oak.oakland.edu /pub/simtelnet
US, New York ftp.rge.com /pub/systems/simtelnet
=============================================================================
Games Programmers site-finland
'This site is a goldmine. Hundreds of specification files for all sorts of
PC peripherals, specs for file formats, FAQs on various programming
concerns. This is one of my top 3 ftp sites.'
Take a trip to: x2ftp.oulu.fi
/pub/msdos/programming/docs
/formats
/gpe
/faq
=============================================================================
Basic on the Web
All of these WWW pages are to do with BASIC or rather, they have things of
use to BASIC programmers.
Basix Fanzine site- http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/2238/fanload.html
Wrox Press - http://www.wrox.com/
Jumbo shareware - http://www.jumbo.com/
PBSOUND WWW site - http://www.snafu.de/~pbsound/
If you know of any others then please tell me and it'll be added, if you
actually own\run the site then please include some info about it and I'll
check it out. I'm offering a bit of free advertising here.. :)
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 2 SUBPART 2 | Money Wise |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With standard BASICs (excluding VB) there is not a large job market at all
so how can you make your money with BASIC? It'd be hard to go out and find
an actual career or regular programming job with only knowledge of BASIC
unless you were willing to be trained. So I repeat, how do we make our
money from BASIC?
Basically it goes back to this point. 'What you use to make something is
not important if the finished product is up to standard', in my opinion
this statement is true. If you write a database system for DOS in BASIC
and then an identical one in C then what does it matter? The C one is not
better in any way, just because it was written in C (proven to be _harder_
than BASIC) doesnt make it actually any better. Ok, it may be a few K less
on the EXE file but today in the world a lot of us have > 200Mb HDs and a
few more K is basically insignificant.
I feel there are a few ways for you to make your money:
- Shareware - A good option for small amounts of cash, it helps
none the less
- Freelance - This could be called a career, it would probably
be working from home though
- FreeStock - The system Netscape used, they gave a program away
for basically nothing and it became so popular they
could float the company on the stock market and
they made big money
Lets take a peek at the first two of these methods:
- Shareware -
People take this approach all the time. You see shareware programs all
over the Internet, on WWW pages, in magazines, on coverdisks, its all
over the place. People _do_ buy shareware, even if you don't. The rate of
registrations depends on the product, market and price, in that order.
The price of a program is not the most important factor, some authors
think it is and they release shoddy products for cheap prices. There's
hardly any registrations and they start to blame it other products or
other things. The most important thing is the product, if its a brilliant
product then you can expect registrations. But we have to remember, the
next important thing is the market. In general there are two types of
market, vertical and horizontal (wide market). A vertical market is where
the product is aimed for a very small number of people, for example, a
horse database, this wouldnt be used by a wide number of people. Ok, a
lot of people might like horses but not a lot of people would pay for a
horse database.
On the other hand, there are horizontal markets, these cover a lot of
people. Games, for example, would fit into this category (although games
do tend to receive a far less registration rate) and (if good enough)
would be used by a wide range of people. Take Wolfenstein 3D for example,
I bet you've played it. Or if not, you've probably played Doom. Games
cover wide markets.
There are other things to consider in the market situation. What about
the sort of people you are trying to "sell" to? If it's games then it's
probably the younger person that would be playing it. The main games
players are in the 12-22 age group. A major percentage of these don't
have jobs, after all, did you have plenty of money to spare when you were
15? This means that they probably wont register.
But then, consider businesses, they want a professional looking program
and they are willing to pay higher amounts of money, after all, if it's
under $30 it's not worth them cutting the check (cheque), is it?
There are lots of points to consider, I could explain them all but we need
to move on.
- Freelance -
In theory this is an actual job although you could balance it on top of
your "normal" job. It involves writing programs for companies. Most of
these wont be worried about what language you use as long as the program
lives up to their expectations and *works*. They also pay pretty well, I
mean, more than shareware but that could be expected, would you do like
3 months work for $40? I guess not.
Finding this work can be done in many ways. You may simply know a local
business that requires a specialist database system or the local school
might need some sort of software. This sort of work can be most simple
because you probably know the people and know the market. But there are
other ways. You could advertise your services over the net or in papers,
this would bring in companies you probably havnt heard of and more work,
and importantly, more contacts. This market doesnt primarily revolve
around adverts in newspapers or any public form of advertising. It's
mainly "word of mouth". Think about it, a business might use your service
and then another business might be talking to them and say 'I like that
database system, where can I get one?' , or directors might be talking to
each other etc.. So, you need to leave a good impression so people talk
about your product in the industry.
If you think, if you concentrate on one major industry, lets say a
database of streets for a taxi-cab firm, you might take 4 months to write
the program and earn $4000 say. Then if another taxifirm approaches you
then you already have the system written! They might want a few changes
but the main work is done. You can earn more money with hardly any work.
So as you can see, freelancing can bring in big $$ but it involves a lot
of work.
We hope you found this information useful. For information or queries
please mail peco@trenham.demon.co.uk
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 2 SUBPART 3 | Competition!!! |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This wasnt easy. :) I had five entries. I allowed three to go through to the
reviewing process.. They were from:
Kenneth Green - KG
Steve Slaven - SS
James Eibisch - JE
Here is the table of results:
| GmPl Docu Efft Time Styl Pres Keys | Average
KG | 4 4 7 4 6 5 8 | 5
---+-------------------------------------------+---------
SS | 7 9 7 5 6 6 3 | 6
---+-------------------------------------------+---------
JE | 8 6 7 8 8 7 8 | 7
GmPl = GamePlay generally how fun the game was, how it kept you hooked
how it gripped you, etc
Docu = Documentation how well the game was documented (not source)
Efft = Effort how much effort I thought had been placed into making
a good game
Time = Time how long I played it for
Styl = Style Programming style in general
Pres = Presentation What the graphics were like etc
Keys = Keys How easy the keys were to find\work out
So I am proud to announce the winner is James Eibisch
James Eibisch entered a Space Invaders game, very much like the original,
very good sound effects too, the music gets faster as the game goes on to
create that gripped feeling that Space Invaders always use to have in the
arcades. It's a goldie, it's an older, and it's a winner! :)
Well done James, I will be contacting you. :^) Well done to Steven and
Kenneth too for being only _just_ behind. I'll probably throw ya some
goodies for effort. :)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- SECTION THREE ---------------------------------------------------------------
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your Shout:
Anything that is sent for use for the zine that doesn't fit into the other
chapters is here. It's where your questions and programs go unless they fit
into an article or if you actually write an article yourself.
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 3 SUBPART 1 | Letters |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Kevin Tomlinson
Site: http://www.datasys.net/users/stu/ktomlinson/super.htm
I am surprised only 193 people have came to your site!! I LOVE the fanzine
it is packed with the information I like to read about. Keep up the good
work! BTW when is issue 6 coming out?
---
Thank you for your mail, the kind words are appreciated.
Well seeing as the site hasnt been heavily advertised (barely) I'm not
surprised.. Not many peoples links go to that site either, its in no
search engines etc. It's mostly my own word of mouth. And that 193 means
193 _different_ people, which I think isnt bad. On the old site there
were over 2000 in a month which I was pretty impressed with, which reminds
me, if you have a site anyone and the links goes to the
http://www.teleport.com/~ericksnj/
site then please change that to:
http://www.trenham.demon.co.uk/fanload.html
Cheers
---
From: Jacob Chacko
Site: n/a
Hi There,
I am Arpith from Australia. I thought i'd add a few articles for
your magazine... Here they are. ENJOY !!!!
---
Thank you! Readers, you get to see some of the codes in the programs
section. There's quite a bit so I'm keeping some for next issue too!
Thanks again.
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 3 SUBPART 2 | Your Programs |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A rather rough program here this week, we havnt much room for the others due
to the super series we have! But heres a source sent in by Jacob Chacko. I
can't really see how this source can work.. Have a look:
'QBasic NoBreak v1.0a
'Copyright (c)1995 by Daniel Trimble
'Public Domain - use at your own risk.
CLS
DO
KEY 15, CHR$(4 + 128 + 32 + 64) + CHR$(70)
ON KEY(15) GOSUB NoBreak: KEY(15) ON
KEY 16, CHR$(4 + 128) + CHR$(70): ON KEY(16) GOSUB NoBreak: KEY(16) ON
KEY 17, CHR$(4 + 128 + 32) + CHR$(70): ON KEY(17) GOSUB NoBreak
KEY(17) ON: KEY 18, CHR$(4 + 128 + 64) + CHR$(70): ON KEY(18) GOSUB NoBreak
KEY(18) ON: KEY 19, CHR$(4) + CHR$(70): ON KEY(21) GOSUB NoBreak
KEY(21) ON: KEY 22, CHR$(4 + 64) + CHR$(70)
ON KEY(22) GOSUB NoBreak: KEY(22) ON: KEY 23, CHR$(4 + 32) + CHR$(46)
ON KEY(23) GOSUB NoBreak: KEY(23) ON: KEY 24, CHR$(4 + 64) + CHR$(46)
ON KEY(24) GOSUB NoBreak: KEY(24) ON
KEY 25, CHR$(4 + 32 + 64) + CHR$(46): ON KEY(25) GOSUB NoBreak: KEY(25) ON
LOCATE 1, 1, 0: PRINT "QBasic NoBreak v1.0a"
LOCATE 2, 1, 0: PRINT "Copyright (c)1995 by Daniel Trimble"
LOCATE 4, 1, 0: PRINT "This program and all source is public domain. I";
PRINT ;"will not be held responsible"
LOCATE 5, 1, 0: PRINT "for any damage this program may cause. I am not";
PRINT ;"at fault; use this at your"
LOCATE 6, 1, 0: PRINT "own risk - period!"
LOCATE 15, 1, 0: PRINT "Try pressing either CTRL-BREAK or CTRL-C.";
PRINT ;" Nothing will happen!"
LOCATE 16, 1, 0: PRINT "To end the program, hit ENTER."
IF INKEY$ = CHR$(13) THEN END
LOOP
NoBreak: RETURN
'ctrl =4 extended keys=128
'num lock=32 c=46
'cap lock=64
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- SECTION FOUR ----------------------------------------------------------------
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Details about the fanzine:
This section has been cut down this week to allow room for more goodies! :)
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 4 SUBPART 1 | Latest Developments |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These web sites will be uploaded 10th August, if you see this before then
then appreciate the pages stated may not be available.
i) Web Archives
To get the fanzine (and back issues!) then come to the official site:
http://www.trenham.demon.co.uk/fanzine/
ii) Specialized Viewer
Thanks to Daniel Garlans (White Shade) we now have a specialized reader
for the Fanzine! For information and a demo please come to:
http://www.trenham.demon.co.uk/fanzine/
and select FanRead
iii) HTML Fanzine
Issue 1 of the zine is available at Joe Lawrences page.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/2323
iv) Mailing List
To join the mailing list :
arelyea@vt.edu
with the following line in the subject header:
subscribe basix-fanzine
Any text in the body of the message will be ignored. The mailing list is
run by Mr. Relyea and the Basix Fanzine claims no responsibility for any
problems with the mailing list. The HTML Fanzine is run by Tom Lawrence
and again the Basix Fanzine claims no responsibility for any problems.
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 4 SUBPART 2 | How do you contribute? |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So how do you contribute?
All you have to do is e-mail all of your source code\articles and ideas to:
peco@trenham.demon.co.uk - with enquiries
bmag@trenham.demon.co.uk - with Q+A, articles, source
Please, I appreciate it _so_ much if you could donate code, questions,
answers, Basic stories, your own ideas for the fanzine etc. It all helps
so much.
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 4 SUBPART 3 | How do you contact the author? |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Email\enquiries: peco@trenham.demon.co.uk
Email\articles: bmag@trenham.demon.co.uk
URL: mailto:peco@trenham.demon.co.uk
WWW: http://www.trenham.demon.co.uk/
IRC: Efnet as Peter
Mod Newsgroup: alt.games.uv1
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 4 SUBPART 4 | Credits |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greets go to (in no real order) :
Joe Lawrence,
wrote the palette series
Marco Koegler, (marco@umr.edu)
wrote the CDROM series
Daniel Garlans, (White Shade)
writing and testing the new FanRead specialized viewer!
(garlans@usa.pipeline.com)
Tony Relyea,
who is the maintainer of the mailing list and owns Russian-under Ware
,a software company, strangely enough! (arelyea@vt.edu)
Douggie Green,
author of the two great FAQ documents - the newsgroup one and the code one
(douggie@blissinx.demon.co.uk)
Other people who deserve some credit:
John Woodgate
SWAG team
Adrian Sill
Wrox Press generally
Kari Patterson
The rather wierd people on IRC #qbasic..
Druppy
Remember that this fanzine relies on your contributions. Cheers, ;-)
______________________________________________________________________________
| SECTION 4 SUBPART 5 | Last Words+Next month |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Next Issue:
SPECIALIZED ARTICLES:
[Series]
More on Demo Coding
CD programming part 3
More on Palette Coding
[Topics and Articles]
Basic Tutorial
ALL LEVELS ARTICLES:
WWW pages and FTP sites
The Interviews with the BASIC Gurus! continued hopefully
YOUR SHOUT:
Your Questions, Answers and programs
DETAILS ABOUT THE FANZINE:
How to contribute, and the usual stuff
Rundown on the Issue 8 fanzine.
Last words:
It's 8am, I've been doing this for the last hour and I can actually
say, it was worth it and I enjoyed it. The coding series will be bound
to be interesting. I'm not even going to say sorry for the delay in this
appearing, you're probably used to it, but that said, Issue 7 should follow
on pretty promptly after this one, it is 50% done which is far better than
usual! Look out for it soon.
Also, if you're a BASIC guru then watch out because I might be interviewing
you!
Cheers {:o) it's me signing off..
Finished: 9th August 1996, 8:13am
note: just discovered first release has problems, recalled posts...
