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- Color Lister
- ----- ------
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- Written by: Joel Ellis Rea
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- Colorlist is a tiny machine
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- language routine that makes program
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- listings print to the screen in
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- multiple colors.
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- Colorlist uses these colors for
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- these keyword classes:
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- Characters Default color
- Primary keywords Light blue
- Secondary keywords Green
- Operators Green
- Functions Orange
- BASIC 4.0 keywords Purple
- C64-Link keywords Pink
- Undefined keywords Cyan
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- To start COLORLIST, do this:
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- LOAD"COLORLIST",8,1
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- Change the text color to the
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- color you want normal text (non-
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- keywords) to print, then type:
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- SYS 52069
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- COLORLIST is now active. If you
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- later want to change the normal text
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- color, do so and then type:
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- SYS 52091
- ......................................
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- When writing BASIC programs, you
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- may choose to insert spaces between
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- your keywords and variables, etc. in
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- an effort to make your program more
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- readable. For example:
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- 10 FOR I=1 TO LEN(A$): IF MID$(A$,I,1)
- <>" " AND I<5 THEN NEXT I: RETURN
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- However, you pay a price for such
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- neatness, both in terms of speed and
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- memory space. In other words, a so-
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- called "neat" program is usually both
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- slower and bigger than one that is
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- written without spaces. The problem
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- is, the program then becomes nearly
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- un-readable. For example:
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- 10 FORI=1TOLEN(A$):IFMID$(A$,I,1)<>" "
- ANDI<5THENEXTI:RETURN
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- Can you find the typo in the above
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- line? How much harder do you think it
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- would be to find the typo if it were
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- embedded in a LONG listing?
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- I am a stickler for speed and com-
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- pactness in BASIC programs. I also am
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- not a perfect programmer. Every once
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- in a while I write programs that don't
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- work right the first time! Because of
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- my "cramped" style, it is rather time-
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- consuming to try to find the errors in
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- my code.
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- Thus, I wrote COLORLIST, which is
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- a small (120 bytes long) machine-lan-
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- guage routine that changes the LIST
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- command so that LISTings now appear in
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- multiple colors. Each keyword becomes
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- color-coded according to its type.
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