Loadstar 229/229.d81/t.sllib

Text File | 2003-01-01 | 9.2 KB | 358 lines

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        SUPER LOADSTAR LIBRARY
           by Dave Moorman


[NOTE:] This is a program you will
definitely want to copy to a working
"LIBRARY" disk. Every couple of
months, LOADSTAR will include an
updated data file to replace and
existing file or add to the total
number of files. Right now, the entire
data base just fits on a 1541 side.


    What a project! Stay tuned at the
end of this file to hear my many woes.

    Back in the early days of Fender
Tucker's reign atop the Mighty
LOADSTAR Tower, he had C.E. "Spock"
Prince help him write up the "LOADSTAR
List" -- the first database for
LOADSTAR programs. Later he updated
the "List."

    Then Jeff Jones arrived on the
scene, and the LOADSTAR Library was
born around issue 58. It was designed
to hold maybe 100 issues-worth of data
-- that being the better wisdom of Dan
Tobias as to the potential longevity
of LOADSTAR.

    After that bench-mark (which
disappointed only Dan), Jeff packed
and crunched the data to force in more
information. Then he added external
files. Jeff left LOADSTAR to pursue
other things, and Fender had to do a
hack or two to continue the Library's
database.

    When I took over, we had [three]
Library programs to cover the 199
issues -- a bit unwieldy by anyone's
standard. This Library thing was
compleatly out of hand! My answer was
to replicate Jeff's excellent
interface, but add the capability to
load Library data files at will.

    Last I looked (just now), we have
nine "LSL.*" files containing
information about every program and
many of the articles that have
appeared on LOADSTAR in 228 issues.
And several of you have been less than
ecstatic about the operation of the
LOADSTAR Library v.7.x.

    So I decided to start all over
from scratch. Well, I didn't scratch
the data files! (Anyone who wants to
retype those nine files has my
blessing -- and condolences!) But I
redesigned the LOADSTAR Library
compleatly, into

     The Super LOADSTAR Library!


The User Interface
------------------

    Everything can be accessed with
the mouse, joystick, cursor keys, or
hotkeys. Your choice. As you move the
mouse pointer over any enabled
"buttons", the color changes,
indicating "focus". The Cursor Keys
move the "focus". And a click or
RETURN turns on the function. You can
also simply press the letter key that
corresponds to the first letter of the
function's title.


Range
-----

    The Super Library allows you to
search any and all issues of LOADSTAR
-- from 1 to 228. The last issue is
"learned" from the datafile names, so
when you updata the Super Library with
a new file, the program is updated as
well.

    When you click/RETURN the "Range"
button or press <R>, you are presented
with a dialog box requiring two inputs
-- the "From #" and the "To #". Type
and RETURN each. When you Begin the
search, engine will start with the
From and end with the To.


Category
--------

    As with LOADSTAR Libraries of the
past, the programs and articles are
categorized more or less by the
LOADSTAR Presenter folder in which
they will be found. I say "more or
less" because many programs from the
early years were not assigned to the
same folder names (such as Utility
Ware). Some programs were from
Commodore Magazine, collected into one
folder. But for the Library, they are
categorized by what they do.

    This menu is where you can choose
a category to control your search. But
in fact, the next function is more to
the point.


Search For
----------

    Here you can choose exactly what
you want to search for -- Program
Name, Author Name, Category, or by
Issue(s). The Program and Author
searchs are "mutually exclusive" --
you can do one or the other. When you
choose one, you will be asked to type
in the search string.

    When you choose Category, the
Category menu comes up. Make your
choice this way. (OK, I changed my
mind about the operation of this
program but didn't want to rewrite the
code all over again. See below for the
gory details.)

    Issue(s) actually supercedes the
Range function -- and is more
powerful. You can choose single issues
(e.g., 24,35,88), or subranges (e.g.,
115-175), or use both ways at once
(e.g., 5,17-22,88-91,112).

    The engine searches by Range or
Issues, then by Category, then by
Program or Author name. You can
disengage any of these items by
selecting it a second time. You will
see a summary of your search
parameters at the top of the black
Result Box:

 R:001-228 C:Z I:-
               A:Tucker

 This search looks for Tucker as the
author of Zero Page articles in all
issues from 1 to 228.

    By the way, all the choices in the
Search For and Category menus are
hotkeyed to their first letter.


Output
------

    You can send the results to the
Result Box on the SCreen, or to a
printer on device 4 or 5. (Hotkeys are
<S>, <4>, and <5>.)


Exit
----

    Leaves the program when you choose
<Y>, or click/RETURN Yes.


Begin
-----

    This is where you Begin your
search. When the search starts, the
Begin button becomes the Next button.
Press <N> or <Space> or click/RETURN
on the button to go to the next found
item in the Result Box.

    Tag works something like the Mark
function did on the old Library. When
you see a program entry you want to
later send to the printer, press <T>
(or mouse/cursor to this button and
click/RETURN). The screen will flash,
and you will note that the "Tagged"
item in the Category display shows how
many items you have Tagged.

    This is not quite the same as the
old LSL, for the information not
really marked or tagged, but tucked
away in memory. You can use the Tagged
Category Search For to retrieve this
list to the Screen or to the Printer.

    To clear the Tag Buffer, choose
Exit, and choose No.

    Quit does just that, pressed at
any time. If you feel the program has
run away from you, press <Q> or
click/RETURN this button and the
search will stop immediately.


Putting It All Together
-----------------------

    Let's say you want a print out of
every BASICS Zero Page program Fender
Tucker ever wrote. You might want to
set the Range to 042-199, since that
is the period Fender led the LOADSTAR
Dreadnaught. Then press <S>, then <A>,
and type "Tucker". Then press <S>,
<C>, and <Z>. Finally, press <B> to
begin the search. A little "clock"
spins in the upper left corner, and a
yellow bar moves across the Result Box
(showing how much of each file has
been scanned). And, the issue number
being scanned is in the box at the
left center of the screen. Lots of
eye-candy!

    When Tucker's name is found, the
entry is displayed. If this is a
BASICS article, press <T> to Tag it.
Otherwise, press <Space> to move to
the next find.

    Now to get your Tagged list out to
the printer. Press <O>, the <4> (for
your printer on Device 4). Press <S>
then <A> to disengage the Author
search (not exactly necessary for the
Tagged File), then <C>, <T>.

    Be sure your Printer is on, with
the paper aligned, and press <B>. All
your Tagged files will soon be on the
hard copy!


Dave's Tale of Woe
------------------

    First of all, I would not have
even tried to write this program
without Lee Novak's Mr.Mouse 2+. All
the mouse-easy bells and whistles are
from his masterpiece of ML madness.
But Mr.Mouse does not have an INSTRING
command -- and I needed one to find
string patterns in the Program and
Author fields.

    So I did a bit of ML to create a
case-insensative INSTRING command. We
will put the modules on next month's
issue for you to use. I also added a
PUT.STR command, which allowed me to
put a string anywhere in memory
(except under $D000). This was needed
for my Tag technique.

    Things were moving along fairly
smoothly, until I LOADed up an old
version of the program to see how I
accomplished some natty little
routine. But I had not written that
routine yet. And then I did a stupid
thing...

    I typed GOTO1000 -- the Scratch
and Save routine I use on every
program. The sad fact was that the
ancient code used the same filename as
the new program -- on line 10000 at
least. Suddenly, I lost several days
of work!

    After being mad for awhile, I
started over from scratch. And once
again, I discovered the advantages of
losing a program at the two-thirds
point.

    Yes! Advantages! By two-thirds the
way through a project, my code is all
mucked up with flags, switches, fixes
and dodges. I can be a very sloppy
programmer -- especially when I just
sit down to the computer and type.

    Secondly, I then knew almost
exactly where I was going and what
needed to be done. Rewriting the
program took less than one-third the
time I had already spent, and the
result was clean and crisp. Finishing
up took about the same time as
recreating the old stuff -- so the
program took only 33% longer to write
than if I had not blown it away.

    Finally, debugging was greatly
simplified, since I didn't have as
many kludges hiding in the depths of
my fuzzy logic. I would suggest this
technique for every program -- but one
must be crazy to throw away all that
code!


Last Note
---------

    If you have a SuperCPU, Super
LOADSTAR Library zips right along. (I
use Warp speed on VICE for an 8x speed
increase.) If you are using a stock
Brown Betty and 1541, this program
will be rather slow because of the
disk accesses and BASIC code. Perhaps
I can reduce the search to ML some
day. As Lee Novak puts it: "First make
it work, then make it fast!"

 DMM