Loadstar 128 #26/q26.d81/t.95 convertible

Text File | 1991-01-01 | 7.6 KB | 175 lines

                      ' 9 5   C O N V E R T I B L E

      Program and Text by Fender Tucker -- Data Entry by Nina Kreigh


    It should come as no surprise to you that this program was inspired by
a book.  I imagine most computer programs are inspired by books because a
computer is a lot like a book, only interactive.  The book is a tiny
paperback volume called "Pocket Ref" by Thomas J. Glover, published by
Sequoia Publishing, Littletown CO, 1989.  It's 480 pages of tiny print,
listing practically every tidbit of numerical data known to man.  I've seen
more comprehensive compilations of knowledge before, but not in such a
handy size.

    The Contents page lists topics such as Automotive, Carpentry,
Chemistry, Electronics, Geology, Money, Plumbing, Tools, Weights and
Measures, but the one that caught my eye was Conversions.  It's 57 pages of
every measure you've ever heard of, and the factor you need to multiply the
quantity by to convert that measure to almost any other relevant measure.
I highlighted every measure that MIGHT pop up during an average person's
lifetime and sent the book off to Mary Kreigh, a LOADSTAR beta tester.  Her
daughter, Nina, volunteered to enter and check all of the data (no small
task!) and the rest is history.

    We published a conversion program back on LS 128 #3 called 1989
CONVERTIBLE.  This then is our conversion program for the 90s, and I must
say that I'm pleased with its speed and ease of use.


 THE PROGRAM SCREEN
 ------------------

    It's a one-screen program.  Press H to see a Help window or Q to quit
to LOADSTAR 128.  Other than those two keys, all you need are the CRSR keys
and the keypad for entering numbers.  A joystick in port #2 will do the
work of the CRSR keys, but you'll still need the keypad (or the regular
number keys) to enter in values.

    There are four "windows" on the screen; two of them are one row tall
and the other two are larger and can be scrolled.  The two small windows
hold the VALUES of the two measurements and the two big windows hold the
MEASURE NAMES.  To make things simple, let's call the windows (from left to
right on the screen) A, B, C and D, with A and C being the one-row-tall
"value" windows, and B and D being the scrolling MEASURE windows.


 CONVERTING
 ----------

    An example is probably the best way to describe the way the program
works.  Let's say you'd like to know how many liters there are in 3.7
gallons of water.  You'd move the red highlight bar (or "cursor") to the B
window and scroll up or down until the highlight bar is on Gallons (US
liquid).  Then move the bar to the A window and enter 3.7 by simply typing
3.7 and pressing RETURN.  The default value for Window A is 1.  Now move
the cursor to the D window and scroll up or down until you find Liters.
Stop on Liters and your answer will miraculously appear in the C window.

   3.7 Gallons (US Liquid) equals 14.00561 Liters

    As you can see, the program allows you to convert Gallons (US Liquid)
to any of eleven different measures.  Note that scientific notation may be
used in Windows A and C.  If you see

     5.7e7

this means 5.7 times 10 to the 7th power, or 57,000,000.  A minus number
after the "e" means the reciprocal.  3e-8 equals 1 divided by 300,000,000.

NOTE: If you use huge numbers in Window A, there's a chance that the value
in Window C may be so LONG that a digit of the exponent is cut off, making
the answer off by at least a magnitude.  My advice is to use reasonable
numbers of six digits or less in Window A.

    '95 CONVERTIBLE also allows you to convert the "other" way.  This means
you can enter values into the C window and the amount in the A window will
change accordingly.   Since not every MEASURE in the D window is found in
the list for the B window, this is the only way to convert from some
MEASUREs in D to the MEASURE in B.


 CONVERSION FACTORS
 ------------------

    There are just about 100 MEASURES in Window B.  Each of them has an
average of about five or six MEASURES that it can be converted to.  As you
can see, Nina did a lot of work!  In the book the value for Window C for
each combination of MEASURES in B and D is given, assuming that the value
in A is 1.  For instance, the conversion factor when Feet is in B and
Inches is in D is 12.  One foot is assumed.

    This means you can add MEASURES of your own to the program, if you have
a word processor that can load and save PETASCII PRG files.  THE WRITE
STUFF does this wonderfully; in fact it was what Nina and I used to make
the file called "conv data".

    Here's how to add data to the file with TWS.

 (1) Boot up TWS and press CTRL then A.  This puts you into the PETASCII
mode.

 (2) Press CTRL then L to get the "Load" prompt.  Delete the "-" that TWS
automatically places on the input line and enter "conv data,p,r".

 (3) When the file is loaded, garbage will appear on the screen.  Press
CTRL then A and voila!  The file is ready to be edited.

 (4) Let's say you want to add factors for converting British money
(pounds) into shillings, pence and farthings.  You need to know how many
shillings in one pound, how many pence in a pound and how many farthings in
a pound.  I have no idea, but I assume you do.  Look for lines that start
with an asterisk.  Scroll down to the right alphabetical spot in the list
and insert "*British Pounds" directly before an asterisked line.  The data
doesn't have to be in alphabetical order, but it's better if it is, right?

 (5) On the three rows directly below *British Pounds enter the data for
the three Measures like this:

  20 Shillings
  100 Pence              These numbers may be totally wrong.
  400 Farthings

Note that there is ONE space between the number and the Measure on each
line.  Do not leave any blank lines in the file.

 (6) When done editing the file, save it as a TWS screen-code file.  This
isn't necessary, but it's handy to have a "source" file like this for the
next time you feel like adding some measures.  Then you can skip the first
three steps above.

 (7) Go to the TWS Print Menu and set the left, right, top and bottom
margins to 0.  You can also do this by using reversed lm, rm, tm and bm
codes in the text itself.

 (8) Print the file to disk with this filename:  @0:conv data,p,w
If there are fewer than 47 blocks free on the disk, you'll have to scratch
"conv data" first then save.  The "@0" (save with replace) syntax requires
that there be as many blocks free on a disk as the size of the file being
replaced.

    That's it!  You're done and the program will now have British Pounds in
the B window.  I've DIMensioned the variables in line 140 in the program
for 800 total lines of factors, and 110 different B window measures.  If
you get a "bad subscript error" you probably have added enough items to
cause a problem.  Simply increase the values in line 140 until you don't
get the error.

    If you want to add extra conversions to measures that already have an
asterisk before them, just insert the new conversion factor and measure
below it on the list.

    To edit the program itself ("95 convertible") you MUST first run it and
break out with STOP-RESTORE.  Do not save the program without running it or
CONTROL80's commands will be tokenized improperly and the program will no
longer run.  An easy way to save it is to

  goto10000


 WRAPUP
 ------

    That's all there is to it.  It's a simple math program but it could
come in handy some day.  Not everybody has a pocket-sized POCKET REF on
hand at all times.   I want to thank Nina Kreigh for her excellent work.
She went over those multi-digit numbers with a fine-toothed comb so you can
be almost 100% certain they are as accurate as the Glover book is.  And
unlike $3000 Pentiums with Intel chips, your C-128 will handle the math
accurately.

FT