Ñ                         ASCII TEXT & EDITORS

                          --------------------

                           BY RICHARD MARTIN

Welcome again all you WAC readers. After last issues Paralax scrolling
article  I promised you a look at ASCII text files and using an editor
of some sort in a game. Well here  it  is,  in one block of text now I
understand the WAC engine!

But before we start what  is  ASCII??.  Well ASCII stands for AMERICAN
STANDARD CODE for INTERGER INTERCHANGE. Quite a complex name,but ASCII
has been around for  many  years.  Basically  some Amercians wanted to
create a file format which was interchangeable between every computer.
Well, they have sort of suceeeded, as I could just as easily be typing
this in a word processor on my  multimedia PC which is sitting next to
me. (Apart from I would have  to  add  in  my Smart  Drive again, then
remove it when I wanted to play Nova Storm!). Anyway, the  file format
of the disks is different  so  I  would  have  to  use Cross Dos. Also
Spectrums use ASCII as well, apart  from  they  don't have a 3.5" disk
drive.
§
AMOS calls ASCII text  files  SEQUENTIAL  Files.  This  is  not such a
stupid name after all because the files are saved out in sequence. For
example If you had three variables:  A,B  and  C. If A=1, B=5 and C=14
the file would look like:

1
5
14

when viewed via a word  processor.  So,  with  thi sorted, lets have a
look at how to load in an ASCII text file from a WP.

You could reserve a bank the same length as the file and then Bload it
in, but Memory banks are something to cover later. So, how about this:

Set Input 10,-1
Open In 1,MYFILE$
Repeat
Input #1,A$
Print A$
Until Eof(1)
Close 1.

Well, first off Set Input 10,-1.  This  is vitally important for ASCII
files. The default setting skips to a  new line when a Comma is found.
When it is  set to 10,-1 then it  finds a carridge return and ends the
line there.

For example if you typed and saved  this into your WP, and then loaded
in to the above program this is what would happen.

START TEXT: Hello, There , Punk
SET INPUT 10,-1: Hello, There , Punk.
NORMAL INPUT: Hello
              There
              Punk
Ï
Next up it opens the  file  into  one  of  its Channels. Then it keeps
going down the file line by line  until it reaches the end. Every loop
it stores the string of text into A$ and then prints it on the screen.
Very simple. To save a file it is just as easy:

' Did 'o' Matic Word Processor
'
'
Screen Open 0,640,256,2,Hires
Cls 0 : Colour 1,$FFF : Paper 0 : Pen 1
Set Input 10,-1
Print "Please Type in your text :"
Input A$
Print" Thank you very much. Please type in the File Name!"
Input F$
Open Out 1,F$
Print #1,A$
Close 1
End

Simple up to now, and this can be  very usefull If you wanted to write
a util. As an example of an editor  util I have given Paul Gumsley the
COMPLETE source to Slide Creator - my new PD util.

Here are the load and save procedures:

Procedure SAV
   F$=Fsel$("","","Please Select File or ","type in new file to save on")
   If F$=""
      Sam Play 2
      LINE$(1)="Warning: File could not be saved"
      LINE$(2)="    <<  Click Mouse  >> "
      MESSAGE[50,50,450,100,2]
   Else
      Open Out 1,F$
      Print #1,STMOD$
      Print #1,NOSLIDES
      For I=1 To NOSLIDES
         Print #1,PIC$(I)
         Print #1,DELAY(I)
         Print #1,INFADE(I)
         Print #1,OUTFADE(I)
         Print #1,PICHEIGHT(I)
         Print #1,PICWIDTH(I)
         Print #1,NOCOLOURS(I)
      Next I
      Close 1
      LINE$(1)="File Saved Sucessfully."
      LINE$(2)="     << Click Mouse >>"
      MESSAGE[50,50,450,100,2]
   End If
End Proc

Procedure LOD
   F$=Fsel$("","","Please Select File ","to Load in and Edit")
   If F$=""
      Sam Play 2
      LINE$(1)="Warning: File not found error!"
      LINE$(2)="    <<  Click Mouse  >> "
      MESSAGE[50,50,450,100,2]
   Else
      Open In 1,F$
      Input #1,STMOD$
      Input #1,NOSLIDES
      For I=1 To NOSLIDES
         Input #1,PIC$(I)
         Input #1,DELAY(I)
         Input #1,INFADE(I)
         Input #1,OUTFADE(I)
         Input #1,PICHEIGHT(I)
         Input #1,PICWIDTH(I)
         Input #1,NOCOLOURS(I)
      Next I
      Close 1
      LINE$(1)="File Loaded Sucessfully."
      LINE$(2)="     << Click Mouse >>"
      MESSAGE[50,50,450,100,2]
   End If
End Proc
§
They save all the infomation needed  into  a small ASCII file. Then it
takes up little disk space, but can  be easily re edited and viewed by
the external viewer. Here is a file created with Slide Creator:

I have written what eacfh piece of information is:
'
 DF0:MOD.STARTREK        : St Module to play.
 1                       : Number of Pictures in Slide Show
 DF0:ARTWORK/STARTREK.IFF: First Picture Name.
 1000                    : How many Vbls to wait.
 3                       : No for Fade in
 4                       : No for Fade out
 256                     : How many Pixels high the screen is (for ed)
 320                     : "             " wide "            "
 4096                    : How Many colours. (This is a nice HAM Pic)
Ï
The cunning thing about  this  is  the  NO pictures variable.The above
slideshow has just one picture in  it.  My  creator can have up to 50!
Now, I could just write all 50 files but they would just be blanks. So
what I do is this to display a picture:

Open in 1,Slides.txt
Input #1,STMOD$
Track Load STMOD$,3
Track Play 3
Input #1,NOPICS
For I=1 to NOPICS
|               |
|               |
|               |
Next I
Close 1
§
It saves a lot of space on disk,  and  a lot of time. I hope Paul puts
my Source on WAC this time.. It is exclusive you know - you won't even
find it on DidsMag.
(Though I run it)

Please write any article suggestions to me at

Richard Martin
9 Blundell Ave
BirkDale
SouthPort
PR8 4TA

or to Paul at the usual address.

Bye Bye