Learn To Walk Before You RUN We receive many letters from new Commodore owners warn to type in program listings from RUN and need help In getting started. To answer many of the questions novice users have, we present the following guidelines. 1. First, keep in mind that as a beginner yon should enter only short Basic programs. Avoid machine language list ings and lengthy Bnsic programs until you get the hang of what you're doing. 2. To help you catch mistakes in Typing in listings, we publish two checksum programs each month, railed (!■! Perfect Typist and 128 Perfect Typist. (Follow the direc tions in How To Type RUN Listings, elsewhere in ihh issue.) 3. If you intend to save [he program you're typing in on a brand new disk, you must format that disk. To do this, insert the disk in your drive and type: OPENISAIS PRINTl*18,"N0:NAME,#lT The ## is a two-character identifier thai can be any combination of letters or digits. NAME can be any title for the disk that you choose, as long as it's 16 characters or less. After entering (lie above lines, wait for a few minutes while the disk spins inside the drive. When the disk stops, the formatting is done. Then type: CLOSEIS !n 128 mode on a C-128, you can shorten this procedure by typing: HEADER "NAME,##" Cuutkm: The formatting process erases any material already on the disk, so if you're formatting a used disk, make sure it doesn't contain any programs you w;inl to keep. See item I 1 below, on reading the disk directory, if you need to Intel out what's on the disk. 4. Before you start typing in a program listing, your computer's memory needs to be empty. To make sine it is, turn the computer off, wail a few seconds, and turn it on again. 5. As you type in the listing, remember to press the return key after each line. The return enters the line into memory. 6. If you want to review what you've entered, type LIST and press the return key; all die lines you've entered will scroll by. You can slow the scrolling on (he C-£H by holding down the control key, and on the C-128 by pressing the no scroll key. To view certain specific lines, type LIST, followed by the line numbers you want; then press the portion and press return to enter the new line in memory. 8. Be sure to save the program to disk fairly often during the typing process. Otherwise, you could lose all your work if a power glitch wipes oul your computer's memory. To save a partial or complete Basic program listing, type: SAVE "NAME",8 In 128 mode on a C-128, you can press F5, lype in NAME and press the return key. Mere, NAME is ihe filename you want the program to have, not the disk name you used when formatting. Each time you save a revised program you must change its filename, or a disk even if only one character is changed. vary the filename is by adding version to ihe same disk, error will occur, An easy way to numbers to the end of the basic name (Program.1 and l'rogram.2, for example). The numbers will also tell you which version is the latest. 9. If you wish to erase (scratch) unwanted programs from a disk, type: OPEN15A15 PRINTS 1 .V'Sftfilenaiin;" CLOSEIS In 128 mode on a C-128. you can type: SCRATCH "NAME" Be sure not to erase the final version! 10. Always save the final version of a program to two disks, so you have a backup copy in case one of (he disks gets damaged. When saving to two different disks, you can use tile same program name in each case. 11. To view a complete list of the filenames on a disk (i.e., read the disk directory], lype: LOAD "J",8 LIST In 128 mode on a C-128, you can just press F3. 12. When you know whai program you want to load, nexl make sure you know exiicllf how its filename is spelled in the disk directory, including punctuation, special charac ters and spaces. A mistake in the filename will keep the load from working. If tile disk director)- is still on the screen when you enter the Load command, you can refer to that for the spelling. If die directory will be gone from the screen by the time you enter the Load command, jot down the exact spelling of the filename for reference. Once you're sure of the filename, lead the program by typing: return key. For example, LIST 10-50 displays lines 10 through 50, and LIST 20 displays only line 20. LOAD "NAME'\8 <[>ress retiirn> 7. If you find an error in a line, delete the incorrect characters with the inscrtdeleie key, then retype that the filename and press the return key. In 128 mode on a C-128, you can just press F2, type in 13. Aftei you've loaded the program, enter RUN louse it. ■ NOVKMBKK IW" K V N 101