A Beginners Guide To COMPUTE!

If you're just getting started with your computer or with COMPUTE!, here are several notes to help you use COMPUTE!:

Presentation

In every issue we try to present a balanced group of articles ranging from material for beginners to material for old hands. Frequently, a beginner can get a great deal out of an advanced article, even though much of it may be over his or her head.

Program listings are presented as legibly as possible. Pet programs are generally reproduced and reformatted here where we've developed software to "translate" the special Pet graphics characters into characters printable by our equipment. These are explained below:

Program Listings for COMPUTE

Cursor control characters will appear in source listings as shown below:

h  = HOME          , ĥ = CLEAR SCREEN
↓ = DOWN CURSOR   , ↑ T = UP CURSOR
→ = RIGHT CURSOR  , ← = LEFT CURSOR
r  = REVERSE       , &rcirc; = REVERSE OFF

Graphics (i.e. shifted) characters will appear as the unshifted alphanumeric character with an underline. This does not apply to the cursor control characters. The Spinwriter thimble doesn't have a backarrow symbol, so a "~" is used instead.

The "&neq;" is used to indicate the beginning of a continuation line. It is also used to indicate the end of a line which ends with a space. This prevents any spaces from being hidden.

If, for example, you're an Apple owner using a Pet program that's reproduced in this fashion, you'll need to be familiar with these special characters so you can program around them. As more computers implement versions of MicroSoft BASIC, the programs should become more and more transportable.

Reader's Feedback will return next issue in a revised and expanded format. Keep those letters and editor's feedback cards coming. By the way, see our New Products section, new this issue. RCL