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Last month's Newbytes column carried an item about "How to Feel at Home with a Home Computer," the new 264-page book by Texas Instruments. We got so caught up in the irony of TI coming out with the book after ending production of its home computer that we neglected to provide ordering information. Here it is: Texas Instuments Inc., P.O. BOX 225012 M/S 54, Dallas, TX 75265. Or call (214) 995-4844, which will put you in touch with TI's Dallas Learning Center. The cost is $12.95.
==Exchange update==
It seems to be a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Last month, we reported that repairs to out of warranty TI hardware would be done through the company's Lubbock repair facility. This information came from TI spokesmen in Dall and Lubbock.
Now we've learned from TI Exchange Center employees that they are continuing to exchange defective hardware whether in or out of warranty. "We're still exchanging them," one employee said. "And we'll continue to exchange them until we're told otherwise." Of course, users are billed for exchanges of out-of-warranty hardware just as they would be if they sent the items to Lubbock for repairs.
<small>'''Newsbytes is a column of general information for Tl99/4A users. It will include product announcements and other items of interest. Vendors and others are encouraged to submit items for consideration. Items submitted will be verified by the staff before inclusion and edited to fit the Newsbytes format. Items may be mailed to the Compendium, P.O. Box 1343, Round Rock, TX 78680.'''</small>
=User Notes=
==TI Adventures copies?==
There is a use for the Tunnels of Doom cartridge that TI may not have intended. Those who bought a number of TI's Scott Adams Adventure games on tape and have since purchased disk drives may be frustrated by the fact that they can't copy the tape to a disk. Not to mention that it would be more convenient to have all the adventure files on one disk. We know of a third party cartridge that allows you to copy the data files, but you may be able to do it with the Tunnels of Doom cartridge, too.
Here's how it's done: With the Tunnels of Doom cartridge in the console, load the adventure game data from tape. After it's loaded, do not start the game. Instead, press Function BACK and then save the data to disk, giving it whatever file name you'd like. Allow about 52 sectors for storage.
Then, when you want to play the newly transferred program, insert the adventure cartridge into the console and load the program out of disk. The adventure appears to play normally, though there may be some random graphic characters that may have gotten
transferred.
==Speaking of BASIC==
If you've got a Terminal Emulator cartridge and speech synthesizer you can have your programs listed via the computer's "voice." We don't recommend this for long programs, but if you've been locked up in a cabin in the out-back for months and miss the sound of a human-like voice, this may be of interest. This hint comes from the Rocky Mountain 99ers group in Littleton, Colorado.
::1-Install speech synthesizer and Terminal Emulator II.
::2-Load program in BASIC.
::3-Type in LIST "SPEECH".
::4-Listen closely.
Be warned, however, that once you start this routine the computer will go on talking until it has finished the program. The Los Angeles 99ers Computer Group says you may run only selected portions of the program by adding a colon followed by the line number you want it to start with, a dash, and the line number you'd like it to stop talking. This is the same technique used to list programs to the screen or printer. Failing this, if you get the TEII started on a long program, the only way to get out of it is to turn the computer off.
==Are those chimes?==
Last month it was telephone tones.
This month ·s sound idea hi.ts to do with
a routine that emuL.1tes chimes. This
comes from the NET 99er group in
Hurst. Texi.tS. It will run in BASIC or
Extend<-•d BASIC. they say.
100- (Progrnm Lines)
200-GOSl 'B 1000
210- (More Program Lines)
1000-RESTORE 1080
1010-READ TONE
1020-IF = 99 THEN 1090
1030-FOR NOTE = -5 TO 30 STEP 5
1040-VOLllME = ABS (NOTE)
1050-CALL SOUND (-99. TONE. VOL
l1ME. TONE*2. VOLUME. TONE*3.
VOLlTME)
1060-NEXT NOTE
1070-GOTO 1010
1080-DATA 2000.2200.2420.2000.99
1090-RETURN
Let the bells ring.
Forward and back
Those with Extended BASIC can
save time in their programming
chores by scrolling forward and
backwL1rd. It's simply a matter of hitting
the Function REDO key. You may
start your scrolling anywhere you ·ct
like by NUM and the line number.
Then hit the Function REDO key to get
things started .. Now. if you want to
scroll backwards. just press the "E"
(up arrow) key. If you'd like to go in
the other direction. press the "X"
(down arrow) key. You can move forward
and backward through the entire
program if you'd like. This can be very
useful when debugging a program.
No more quit
There are few things more frustrating
than having 30 minutes worth of
keyboarding done away with by a
power outage. Even more annoying is
losing the data because of hitting the
Function QUIT key inadvertantly. Is
there a TI user who hasn't done this at
least once?
. Those who have a 32K memory
expansion and Extended BASIC can
pren·nt this li.tlter problem from ever
lwppening. Here is a two-liner that
disables the Function QUIT key:
CALL INIT:: CALL LOAD (-31806.16).
Typt' it in after entering Extended
BASIC.
Although you won't be able to use the
QUIT key to le<.1ve Extended BASIC.
you can still type "BYE" to exit to the
title screen.
Keeping track
Extended BASIC programmers can
use the exclamation point at the end of
a program line to enter remarks .. In
BASIC, however, TI says the.remark
statement, REM, is supposed to come
at the beginning of a line. For programming
purposes, the computer
ignores anything that follows a 'REM
statement until it reaches the next
programming' line. However, the
Hoosiers Users Group of Indianapolis
says the REM statement can be written
on the same line as a program
statement, with a few limitations.
First, the program line, including the
REM statement, cannot be longer
than one screen line. This may limit
this technique to remarks following
GOSUBs, GOTOs and other short
commands. Here's an example:
100 GOSUB 200 REM DRAW LINE
The Hoosiers caution that the line
must end with a blank space.
How many bytes?
S e v e r a l c a r tr i d g e s. such as
Extended BASIC. affect the amount of
random access memory available to
the user of a TI console. Powered-up in
BASIC. the console has 14.S36 bytes of
user-available memory. Insert a
Terminal Emulator II cartridge and
the amount is reduced to 14.024 bytes.
Insert the Extended BASIC cartridge
and you've got 13.928 bytes available.
If you add a disk drive to your system.
deduct another 2088 bytes.
User Noll's is a ('Olumn ol tips and idPas
desigm•d to lwlp readns put tlwir honw
('Ompuh'rs to helh·r use.
The information pro,·idt'·d hen• <·onws
from many soun"l'S, induding Tl honw
eompuh'r user group newsletters. We
pm•ourage en•r·o,w lo ('Ontrihuh· items for
puhliealion in this ('Olumn.
