

                               A-Z of STOS
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~
                            By Tony Greenwood
                          For STOSSER Diskzine
                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Before i begin let me just say  HELP!,  Would someone please take over 
this series,  You can see what its all about from the last issue and this 
issue,  Simply write anything you want about the letter of the month, Its 
easy and i really would like someone to take it over,  Just get in  touch 
with  Keefy at the usual address and the first one will get themselves  a 
series  for STOSSER and also the dubious title of being a member  of  the 
STOSSER team, Dont let me down, Write today please,

First let me explain that i am not about to go through all the commands 
starting with the letter A.  Well if i did that then i could package it 
and sell it as a book, but then again i am not going to cover  subjects 
that should'nt need covering.  For example when i get to P i will not be 
writing about PRINT, hopefully i will however be writing about things you 
will not find in your STOS manual.  If i do, then i will be explaining 
them a little better than the manual.  You may also find a few of my 
thoughts on certain commands starting with the letter in question. 

We covered A in the last issue so we are now on B.  As promised first
off is Borders and the removal of them.

Note: as in the manual, n is used to denote any number of your choice 
within the commands limitations.

BORDERS ( Removal of )

There isn't an actual command in STOS or any other launguge that i am 
aware of that lets you remove the borders.  Neither is there an Extension 
that does it ( Again not that i am aware of ).  But there are a few 
programs that can be loaded into a bank that will suffice, the one i am 
using is quite small and to be truthful i have no idea of what it 
actually does.  I have a feeling that it quickly changes Hertz just 
before and after a VBL.  A lot quicker than Basic could do it, either way 
i am not bothered and it does the job, besides we dont want to get too 
techi do we.  The coder of the program we are going to use is unknown to 
myself, but the following code is by me.

On this disk you should find a folder entitled NOBORDER, inside which  
you will find BORD.ASC ( The following routine ),  BORD.BAS ( The routine 
with the prg installed and BORD.MBK ( the prg file to use ).
 

10 mode 0: key off: curs off: click off: hide on: mouse off: update off

Line 10 normal set up

20 load "BORD.MBK",10

Line 20 loads the prg thats already in a bank

30 A$="STOSSER DISKZINE"+chr$(0) : B$="NO TOP/BOTTOM BORDER ROUTINE"+
   chr$(0)

Line  30 assigns a couple of variables for use with the missing link  
text commands.
 
40 reserve as work 11,43360 : fill start(11) to start(11)+43360,$0

Line  40  reserves a bank to fit the larger screen onto and then fills  
it with 0's, that effectively cleans the bank.

50

Line 50 not used in this example

60 bcopy 11 to 12 : wait vbl 

Line 60 copies to another bank then we can have one for logic and one for 
physic

70 colour 1,$700

Line 70 simple set up colour for text befoe assigning the banks to physic 
etc....

80 physic=start(12) : logic=start(11) : wait vbl 

Line 80 assigns the physic and logic screens to the two banks

90 call start(10)+28 : wait vbl 

Line 90 calls the prg in bank 10.....vola full screen

91 repeat : h=hardkey

Line 91 starts a loop

95 for N=0 to 24
100 text logic,1,varptr(A$),0,N
120 text logic,1,varptr(A$),24,N
121 next N
122 for N=0 to 6
123 text logic+32000,1,varptr(B$),6,N
125 next N

Lines 95 to 125 just do something, in this instance they place text onto 
the screen, this could have been done at line 50, or a picture could have 
been copied into the bank at logic 0,0 and at logic+32000 0,0

130 screen swap : wait vbl 

Line 130 update the screen

140 until H=57 

Line 140 waits for the space bar to be pressed then ends the loop.

145 floodpal 0 : wait vbl : call start(10)+28 : wait vbl 
150 erase 11 : erase 12 : clear key : mouseon : default : end 

Line 145 and 50 simply default and erase the banks and ends the program.

As you can see i have yet again used the Missing link extension, I did'nt 
have to, but it has more commands available for use with actual address's 
For instance you could'nt have printed any lower than line 23 using 
PRINT, but with the text command you can add bits to logic rather than 
add bits to the print location. 

As i say, you could just as easily have placed a picture in the bank at 
line 50, copying the picture from a bank to the new big bank and then 
onto the screen would fill the top border and two thirds of the screen,  
to place a picture underneath you would have to copy it 32000 bytes lower
Lets say you have a picture in bank 7 and a picture in bank 8

 50 FASTCOPY START(7),START(11) : FASTCOPY START(8),START(11)+32000

Again the FASTCOPY command from the missing link is used.  Some 
experimentation would be neccesary to get two pictures to look right on 
the  screen, but it is possible.  Have a look at the intro to issue 3 
of STOSSER.  This program was used for that screen, although the scroller 
was a mess and not up to standards, it was about ten months ago when i 
made that.
 
You can easily place a nice scroller into the top and if you wanted 
bottom border of this routine, Just place the commands inside the loop 
at lines 91 to 140.  If you use the missing links SCROLLTEXT routine 
then it will be easy enough to place your scroller at LOGIC 0,0 and 
LOGIC+32000 0,n

Well all the above should be easy enough for you to follow and to change 
to your own needs.  If you havent got the Missing link (then why not) 
you can always change the commands to suit STOS basic commands. 

Note the mouse will stop the routine so always have it turned off using  
MOUSE OFF from MISTY.  If you haven't got MISTY then try 
POKE $FFFCO2,$12 to switch  the  mouse completely  off and 
POKE $FFFCO2,$8 to switch it back on  again.  

Remember that HIDE ON simply does exactly what it says, HIDE's IT and 
doesn't actually turn it off.

                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If i am not mistaken its C next,  well that has to be colour.  And maybe 
a few other things..........

Keep on STOSSING......!eyB

 

 
 

