theMONITOR CommodoreUsersGroupofSaskatchewan 361729thAvenue Regina,SK S4S2P8 Tel:(306)584-1736 BBS:(306)586-6608 President eachother.Membershipdues($15)arepro-rated, TristanMiller 584-1736 basedonaJanuarytoDecemberyear.Anaddi- VicePresident tional$5willbechargedformemberswishing ByronPurse 586-1601 theirnewsletterstobemailedtothem. Secretary/Treasurer KenDanylzczuk 545-0644 Anyone interested in computing is welcome to Editor attendanymeeting.Membersareencouragedto TristanMiller 584-1736 submitpublicdomainandsharewaresoftware AssistantEditors forinclusionintheCUGSDiskLibrary.These ByronPurse 586-1601 programsaremadeavailabletomembersat$3.00 R LyndonSoerensen 565-2167 each(discountedpriceswhenbuyingbulk).Since KeithKasha 522-5317 someprogramsonthedisksarefrommagazines, 64Librarian individualmembersareresponsiblefordeleting StanMustatia 789-8167 anyprogramthattheyarenotentitledtobylaw 128Librarian (youmustbetheownerofthemagazineinwhich O KeithKasha 522-5317 theoriginalprogramwasprinted).Tothebestof MemberatLarge ourknowledge,allsuchprogramsareidentifiedin HerbThompson 543-3460 theirlistings. T TheMonitorispublishedmonthlybytheCom- Otherbenefitsofclubmembershipincludeaccess modore User's Group of Saskatchewan toourdiskcopyingservice,tomakebackupsof I (CUGS).MeetingsareheldonthefirstWednes- copy-protectedsoftware,anymemberswhoowna dayofeverymonthinMillerHighSchool'scafete- modemandwishtocallourbulletinboardwill ria annex, unless otherwise noted. The next receiveincreasedaccesstothemessageandfile meetingwillbeheldonDecember1,1993from areas.Theboardoperatesat300to2400baud,24 7:30to9:30P.M. N hoursaday. CUGSisanonprofitorganizationcomprisedof64 and 128 users interested in sharing ideas, pro- grams,knowledge,problems,andsolutionswith O THELASTGREATCOMMODORE M 64COMMERCIALSOFTWARE SALE ¡¢¡£¡ HundredsofORIGINAL,UNOPENED e COMMERCIALsoftwarepackageswillbe soldbysilentauctionon Wednesday, December1at7:30P.M.inMillerHigh h School’sCafeteria. ¡¢¡£¡ t BETHERE! 1 theMONITOR CommodoreUsersGroupofSaskatchewan ¤ ¤ ¤ 361729thAvenue ¤ Regina,SK S4S2P8 Tel:(306)584-1736 BBS:(306)586-6608 Editorials Greetings,loyalCUGSmembers.Firstoff, hat,asitwere,andgivespinatassistingwith I'dliketocongratulatethenewexecutive— this most noteworthy publication. Who we have four new people this year: Herb knows—perhapssomedayI'llevenserveas Thompson,ByronPurse,LyndonSoerensen, president(Ha!Dreamon,boy!). andKeithKasha.Hopefullythiswillproveto beanopportunityfortheclubtoreceivenew I'vebeingreadingfromsomeoldcomputer insightsandideas.Thiswillbeespeciallytrue mags over the past couple of weeks — I with the incorporation of two more people managed to buy about 200 from a guy re- intothenewsletterstaff,bringingthetotalto cently—andwasstruckhowseventoten four!Nodoubt,therewillbenoshortageof years ago the humble Commodore 64 was helpputtingtheMonitortogetherthiscoming consideredtobeaviablebusinessmachine! year.NowifwecanonlygetsomeofYOU That's right, folks. This line the "power memberstosubmitsomearticles—afterall, users"havebeinghandingusaboutthe64 there'snopointinassigningthismuchwork beingonlyagamemachineisplainhogwash! tothenewsletteriftherearenocolumnsto Albeittherearemorepowerful,fastercom- run.Tosubmitsomematerial,simplyupload puterswithmorememoryaroundtoday.But ittotheBBSorcontactoneoftheexecutive a64cankeepthebooksforasmallbusiness, byphoneormail—it'sassimpleasthat. noproblem.Infactsomeoftheearlysoft- wareadsfeaturedapictureofadadkeeping Myobligatorypleaforarticlesoverwith,let's eitherthefamilybudgetorthebooksforhis move on to other, more important things. smallbusinessonhistenyear-oldson's64 Again,youcanseethatIhavechangedthe which,incidently,sitsinhisson'sroom,after formatoftheMonitor.IhopeI'mnotbeing hisson'sfallenasleepatnight.I'vealsoread tooinconsistenthere,butI'mreallyjusttrying severallettersfromsatisfiedbusinessowners tofindthebestsortofarrangementoftext. extolling the virtues of the 64, which they Ken, aformereditor,suggestedIaddabit proudlyusedtoruntheirbusinesses,evenan morewhitespace.WhenIwenttochangethe articlethatmentionedhowVIC-20sand64s margins,however,itdidn'tseemquiteright, were used in medical labs to perform the and I ended up fiddling with the damned calculations required by the testing proce- programfornearlythreehours.Thisisthe dures!So,thenexttimeyouheara"power endresult—Ihopeitdoesn'tlooktoobad. user"cuttingdownourmachines,youcansit Anyway,Icanalwaysswitchbacktotheolder orstandthereandchuckleathisorherlackof formatifIgetanegativereadershipresponse. intelligence. Heck,I'dbehappywithanyreadershipre- sponse.(Hello?Isanyoneoutthere?) Untilnexttime... -Keith ¥ Well, that'saboutitforthismonth.Now, Helloall.Idon'treallyhavethatmuchtosay withoutfurtherado,here'sKeith... -Tristan thismonth,soI'lljustbasicallysayhello. ¥ Iremembertalkingtooneofthelongerstand- ingmembers(I'mtryingtoavoidusingthe termold)ofourclubwhohasservedinthe executive,andbeingimpressedwiththefact thathehasservedinabout75%oftheexecu- tivepositionsatonetimeoranother.Well,I guessit'snowmyturntoputonadifferent 2 theMONITOR CommodoreUsersGroupofSaskatchewan ¦ ¦ ¦ 361729thAvenue ¦ Regina,SK S4S2P8 Tel:(306)584-1736 BBS:(306)586-6608 Asoneofthenewly-electedAssitantEditors, EXPERTSLIST it'smyjobtohelpoutwithpublicationofthe newsletter by receiving articles, helping in layout, contributing articles and maybe an WordProcessing editorial or two, and basically just act as Paperclip JarrettCurrie757-2391 insurancethatthenewsletterwillbeouton Paperclip KenDanylczuk545-0644 time. PocketWriter BarryBircher543-8840 PocketWriter RealCharron586-1843 Tosome,theAssistantEditorshiphasbeen PocketWriter TristanMiller584-1736 lookeduponassortofan"Editor-in-Training" position.Iwillnotdisputethis.However,I Spreadsheets believethatthepositionismuchmorethan PocketPlanner BarryBircher543-8840 training.Itisalsoachancetoseeandacton BetterWorking KenDanylczuk545-0644 changesthattheclubasawholemightneedin ordertoimproveandperhapstoaugmentthe Databases service to club members aside from the PocketFiler BarryBircher543-8840 monthlymeetings. Oracle KenDanylczuk545-0644 Unfortunately,noimprovementscanbemade Communication withouttheparticipationofthereadersofthe DesTerm2.0 BarryBircher543-8840 newsletter.Ifthereissomethingthatanyof Pro128Term JarrettCurrie757-2391 youwouldliketoseeimprovedorotherwise LibraryFiles BarryBircher543-8840 changed,tellus.Afterall,weEditorsonly Novaterm9.1-4 TristanMiller584-1736 abletoactonyoursuggestionsandcomments when you make them known. On to other Music/Sound matters...... (Most) KenDanylczuk545-0644 SidEditors TristanMiller584-1736 Thismonth(asI'msureyou'llseeelsewherein thisissueandhaveheardaboutfromothers) Languages istheLastGreatSoftwareAuction.Upfor Forth KenDanylczuk545-0644 bidsaremanyfineprograms,allnewandin Pascal KenDanylczuk545-0644 theoriginalshrink-wrap.ThereareaLOTof ML KenDanylczuk545-0644 reallyfineprograms(Somuchso,thatI'm ML BarryBircher543-8840 alsogoingtobebiddingforthem:)).It's BASIC KenDanylczuk545-0644 probablytheveryLASTtimesuchasaleas thiswilltakeplaceintheCommodore8-bit Graphics world,soifyouaredoingsomeChristmas PrintShop KenDanylczuk545-0644 shoppingandeedtofindthatoneperfectgift PrintMaster KenDanylczuk545-0644 forafavoriteneiceornephewthathasaC-64 Koala KenDanylczuk545-0644 or128,whynotmakeabidontheitems? Doodle! TristanMiller584-1736 Well,I'venotgotmuchmoretosayexceptto Hardware congratulatetherestoftheNewExecutiveon DriveMaint. KenDanylczuk545-0644 theirelectionandtowisheveryonethebestof theseason. Lyndon § GEOS GEOS64 JarrettCurrie757-2391 GEOS128 BarryBircher543-8840 § 3 theMONITOR CommodoreUsersGroupofSaskatchewan ¨ ¨ ¨ 361729thAvenue ¨ Regina,SK S4S2P8 Tel:(306)584-1736 BBS:(306)586-6608 SirRichard'sBasic RichardMaze Thisisthethirdarticleinaseriesexamining separate from the program and cannot as thedifferentfiletypesandtheprogramming easilybetransferredtoanotherdiskorchang- involvedwitheach.Thefirstarticledealtwith edascoulddatastatements. thedifferentfiletypesandhowadiskissetup tohandlethem.Thesecondarticleexamined ProgrammingwithSEQuentialfilesinvolves PRoGramfiles.ThisarticleexaminesSE- threesteps-OPENingalineofcommunica- Quentialfiles. tiontothediskdrive,transferringdata,and CLOSEing(turningoff)theline. SEQuentialfilesareprimarilyusedforsaving data.Thedataisstoredtodiskfromwithina OPENingalineofcommunicationinvolvesa BASICprogramandaccessedwithinapro- specific statement. The general format is gram.ThemainusesforSEQuentialfilesare: OPEN 1,8,5,"0:filename,S,W". The BASICkeywordOPENisusedtotellthedisk © Inlargeprograms,memoryisconservedby drivethatyouwanttocommunicatewithit. havingthedatainafilewhichisaccessedand Thethreenumbers(1,8,5)havethefollow- putintovariableswhenneeded.Thisprevents ingsignificance:thefirstnumber(LOGICAL a "duplication" of storage space caused by filenumber)canbeanyvaluebetween1and having data in DATA statements and in 255.Itisusedforallreferencetothefile.It variables. isonlyimportantwhenmorethanonesequen- tialfileisopenatonetime.Itisthewaythe Whenlotsofvariabledataisgoingtobe computerkeepstrackofwhichfileitisac- used,itcanbestoredinSEQuentialfilesand cessing.Ifmorethanonefileisopenatonce, accessedasneeded.Thiseliminatestheneed each must have its own unique logical file tohavealldatastoredinthecomputeratone number. time. Thesecondnumber(DEVICEnumber)isthe Inprogramswherelistingtheprogramsand devicenumberforthediskdrive.Forafileon seeing the data (e.g. words for a hangman aseconddiskdrive,substitute9forthe8. game)couldruintheeffectoftheprogram, Usea1for8forcassettetape. thedatacanbekeptinaSEQuentialfileand begenerallyunavailabletopryingeyes.