Learn To Walk Before You RUN We receive many letters from new Commodore owners who want to type in program listings from RUN and need help in gelling started. To answer mnny 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 Basic 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, called 61 Perfect Typist and 12H Perfect Typist (Follow the direc tions in How To Type RUN Listings, elsewhere in (his issue.) 3. If you intend to save ihe 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: 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 out your computer's memory. To save a partial or complete Basic program listing, type: SAVE "NAMK",8 In 128 mode on a C-128, you can press F5, type in NAME and press the return key. Mere, NAME is the filename you want the program to have, not the disk name you used when formatting. Each time you save a revised program to the same disk, you must change its filename, or a disk error will occur, even if only one character is changed. An easy way to vary the filename is by adding version numbers to die end of the hasic name (Program.1 and Program.2, for example). The numbers will also tell you which version OPEN 15,8,15 is the latest. ]'R1NT#15."NO:NAMK,##" 9. If you wish to erase (scratch) unwanted programs from The ## is a two-character identifier that can he 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 (he above lines, wair for a few minutes while the disk spins inside the drive. When the disk stops, the formatting is done. Then type: CLOSE15 a disk, type: OPF.N15,8,1 :> PRINTS 15 ,"S0: file name" CLOSF.15 <])ress ri'lurn> In 128 mode on a C-128, you can type: SCRATCH "NAME" Be sure not to erase Ihe final version! In 128 mode on a C-128, you can shorten this procedure by typing: 10. Always save the final version of a program to two disks, so you have a backup copy in case one of the disks gels damaged. When saving lo two different disks, you can use HEADER "NAMEjUr1 Caution: The formatting process erases any material already on the disk, so if you're formatting a used disk, make sure il doesn't contain any programs you want to the same program name in each case. 11. To view a complete lisi of the filenames on a disk (i.e., read the disk directory), type: keep. Sec item 1 I below, on reading the disk directory, if I.OAD -$".» you need to find out what's on die disk. LIST 4. Before you start typing in a program lisiing. your computer's memory needs to be empty. To make sure it is, turn the computer off. wait a few seconds, and turn it on again. 5. As you type in ihe lisiing, remember to press the return In 128 mode on a C-128, you can just press F3. 12. When you know what program you want to load, next make sure you know exactly how its filename is spelled in the disk directory, including punctuation, special charac into ters and spaces. A mistake in the filename will keep (he load from working. If the disk directory is still on the screen when you enter 6. If you want to review what you've entered, type LIST the Load command, you can refer to that for the spelling. and press the return key: all the lines you've entered will If the director)' will be gone from the screen by the time scroll by. You can slow the scrolling on the C (il by holding you enter the Load command, jot down the exact spelling of ihe filename for reference. Once you're sure of the key after each line. The return enters the line me in or)'. 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 ihe return key. For example, LIST 10-50 displays lines 10 through 50, and LIST 20 displays only line 20. 7. If you find an error in a line, delete the incorrect characters with the insert-delete key, then retype (hat filename, load the program by typing: LOAD "NAME'.B In 128 mode on a C-128, you canjusl press F2, type in the filename and press the return key. 13. After you've loaded the program, enter RUN to use il. ■ MAY 19HH ■ RUN" 53