Loadstar 224/224.d81/t.manual5

Text File | 2003-01-01 | 11.1 KB | 387 lines

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           D A T A T O O L


PRINT THE WORKSHEET

 The program offers no drivers for
different sorts of printers, but still
it has a few features for controlling
the output. The output consists of
worksheet headline, comment, column
title and a range of worksheet rows,
except rows containing BASIC. Row
number and row setting also will not
be printed.

 Print From / To Row is updated by the
system itself, but you can change it,
of course.

 Same with Print From / To Column: The
range of printed columns is proposed
by the system, but it can be changed.
Beside that, specific columns can be
set not printable in the worksheet
setting.

 You will have to watch the length of
a line on the printer output. To the
width of every printable column one
character has to be added for the grid
line (or space) between rows, plus one
character for the grid line at the
very left. If your printer allows it,
the system will be able to output 160
characters each line.

 In the Column Grid Line cell, a
single character in ASCII code can be
specified which will be printed
between the columns. If no value is
set, a space will be printed instead.

 In the Row Grid Line cell a character
can be specified that will be printed
between the rows for the entire row
length. If space (ASCII 32) is set, an
empty row will be printed. If no value
is set, there will be no extra line
between the rows.

 In the Intersection cell another
character can be defined that will be
printed wherever the grid line of
column and row intersect.

 The Perform / Reset Headline allows
you to set a code (or a code sequence)
that will be sent to the printer
before and after printing the
worksheet headline. If more then one
ASCII code is needed, the codes have
to be separated using SHIFT RETURN .
If no value or zero is set, the cell
has no function.

 Likewise, Perform / Reset Col. Titles
can be used to control the appearance
of the column titles in the same way.

 The Define Print Codes cell can be
used to assign a specific ASCII code
to any character. There are a lot of
printers around, requiring different
ASCII codes for non-standard
characters. For example, you can
specify the actual printer code for
special characters. Please note: the
Shifted SPACE is internally processed
as ASCII 224. You maybe have to set
the common ASCII 160 here.

 The input form requires that you type
in the referred character first, and
(with or without space) the ASCII code
in numbers afterwards. You are free to
write a comment after the digits. You
must use a new line for each character
and code number using <Shift-RETURN>.
The system will skip failed syntax
without an error message.

 If ASCII set IBM is selected, the
characters a...z will be converted to
ASCII code 97...122, and A...Z to
65...90, instead of the CBM standard
in lower case, where a...z are
represented by code 65...90 and A...Z
by 193...218.

 The BASIC Open Printer and BASIC
Close Printer cells must be filled
with an executable BASIC code.
Printers have different needs and
opportunities, concerning the opening
procedure. Maybe you have to open
several files in order to adjust your
printer, and maybe you have to send a
few commands first. In case you open
more then one file, the output of the
actual worksheet data will be sent to
the file number that was opened or
used last. The output itself can't be
controlled by BASIC, because it is a
copy of the screen display. But there
are several options anyway: You may
use the export data option for sending
data to a printer, as well as you may
print to a file if you open a disk
file instead of a printer.


SYSTEM OPTIONS

 This part of the main menu offers
miscellaneous features. Run some by
simply pushing RETURN in the left part
of the screen, and others by providing
input into the right part of the
screen.

 BASIC Memory shows the present load
of the memory. The available capacity
is split into a main memory,
containing the worksheet, and a BASIC
area, temporary used for BASIC code
and variables. You can check this, and
you can change the amount of bytes
reserved for BASIC by entering a new
value. Changing the setting will clear
the temporary BASIC Memory.

 The system can't manage arbitrary
memory requirements of both areas
automatically while running BASIC. If
you get a BASIC error message "out of
memory", you should increase BASIC
memory; if you get a system error
message complaining about the same
thing, try to decrease it. The minimum
size of BASIC memory is 256 bytes, the
maximum is determined by the amount of
worksheet data.

 If you Enter BASIC, the C64 BASIC
interpreter will welcome you with the
well known READY prompt. You should be
able to do anything that can be done
in BASIC. Push the BACK-ARROW-key to
quit this mode. This feature could be
useful if BASIC errors pop up. Memory
content will be as when the error
occured, so you may list the code and
check the variables.

 The option to Load extension with a
specified name currently is useless.
It's meant to load executable code -
whatever that might do. Maybe an
extension for creating charts will be
added in future. The code-area is
restricted to less then 1.5 KB, a
working area would be accessable
behind the kernal-ROM (normally used
for buffers). The structure of a
worksheet file would allow to append
external data and settings, and parts
of the main program could be used as
well. The loading address is 51713 /
$CA01. Don't try to load unknown files
as extension, because it may load into
sensitive areas.

 Run extension will start the code, if
its first 22 bytes fit into the
reference code of Datatool, which
mainly is the BASIC command to load
the loader.

 The option Set Drive Numer sets any
drive from 8 to 15. If you change the
drive numer in the input cell on the
right, the new number will be valid
for the next drive access. If you push
RETURN in the left cell, it just
checks whether the drive is present,
and reads the error channel. Thus, if
you want to receive a drive error
message that wasn't reported
automatically, use this option to read
it.

 View Directory calls the drive to
show the directory. A directory longer
then one screen page can be scrolled
by moving the cursor down. Scrolling
upwards is not possible, but pressing
<HOME> will bring you back to the top.
Pressing <RETURN> will store a
filename both to character buffer and
cellbuffer, in order to call this
filename for loading, saving or
sending disk commands, using <C=-DEL>.

 Disk Command will send the command in
the input cell to the drive. The error
channel is checked afterwards, but
only shown if the drive reports an
error. Only inputting a command
without calling the action will not
cause anything.

 Clear Data will erase the content of
all data- and result-rows in the
worksheet. Settings, however, will
stay unchanged. As in similar tasks,
an error warning will let you know if
the present state of the worksheet is
not saved to disk. Please note, that
the performance of this option is
pretty slow if the worksheet is large.

 Clear All will erase all data and all
settings, and reset everything to what
it was as at boot up.

 Exit Program will call the operating
system routine that resets the C64 to
warmstart condition. However, program
and data still are intact. In order to
undo the exit

 poke 2049,21:poke2050,8:sys 33019

 Or you load "b.unexit",8 and run it.
This will reload the program, keeping
all data - provided the data is valid.


ERROR MESSAGES

 Errors come in several flavors:
errors issued by the BASIC
interpreter, drive errors and lastly
system errors and warning messages.

 BASIC error message: The system tells
   you in which task the error
   happened, and passes on the error
   message of the BASIC interpreter.

 Drive error message: The system
   checks the error channel after
   drive access, and passes on the
   message if the first error number
   digit is greater then 1.

System warning messages:

 Task unfinished: During running,
   searching, sorting, printing or
   clearing data, you may suspend the
   process by pushing <STOP>. The
   warning message gives you the
   chance either to cancel the
   STOP command by pushing the <BACK
   ARROW> key or to confirm that you
   want to abort by pushing <RETURN>.

 Changes not saved: This warning
   message pops up if you want to
   clear, load or exit a worksheet
   without having saved the file. This
   goes for workssheet data as well as
   any input in any menu item, except
   entries in the filename cells.

System error messages:

 Task unfinished: Push STOP during
   load or save to abort the task.
   Concerning drive access there is no
   way back, and the results will be
   invalid.

 Out of memory: Main memory is full;
   you should reduce the BASIC memory
   area (System options) if possible.

 Buffer overflow: In input mode, the
   system will tell you that the
   character buffer is full. You still
   can read the buffer, unless you
   fill it again. If the error occurs
   in outline mode, the system will be
   unable to copy a very large column
   to the cellbuffer. <DEL> and
   <C=-HOME> will not work, but you
   still can clear a column with
   <CLR>.

 Incompatible format: This message
   pops up if you try to copy the
   content of the cellbuffer to a
   destination of different type or
   structure. Another reason for this
   error could be that you tried to
   start an extension which didn't
   have the required format.

 Input out of range: The input doesn't
   fit the format of the cell, usually
   due to numeric input that was too
   small or too big.

 Entry too long: Maximum capacity for
   BASIC cells is 1020 bytes, and 255
   bytes for text cells, but some
   cells (e.g. specifying a variable)
   are assigned to hold merely a few
   characters.

 BASIC lines too long: A BASIC line
   can't be longer then 80 characters.
   You need to split a longer chain of
   commands into several lines, using
   <shift-RETURN>. This error message
   will pop up when you run BASIC, not
   when you input it.

 Can't convert data: Once data is
   stored in a column you can't change
   this column's type. Either clear
   the data, or use BASIC for
   converting and copying data into
   another column. Same with row type.

 No variables assigned: You tried to
   run a worksheet without naming at
   least one variable in one column.

 No BASIC found: You tried to run a
   worksheet without inputting at
   least one BASIC statement in one
   column, or you tried to print,
   import or export without BASIC
   opening and closing instruction.

 Missing data: This message pops up if
   you run an empty worksheet without
   setting the number of the last row
   included.

 Device not present: Either drive or
   printer are not online. This
   message will also pop up if your
   BASIC instruction for opening
   printer refers to a device number
   less then 4.

 Verify error: The worksheet file on
   disk doesn't match the one in
   memory. Maybe no need to worry
   about corrupt data, because this
   could be due to inputs into
   menu items. (A native Datatool file
   contains all cells of all
   menu items, so even changing the
   drive number represents a
   modification.)

 Invalid file cleared: Either you
   tried to load a non-native file, or
   a stray process corrupted the data
   structure on disk or in memory.