communications

SYSOP SANTA CLAUS

Last-minute gift help online

by Russ Wetmore

Computerize your holiday gift selections with Antic's first two-part magazine/online program. Printed in this issue is a selector program that organizes the gift possibilities for someone on your list. The program will then search through a vast gift database available on CompuServe's SIG*Atari. The BASIC program works on 8-bit Atari computers with 48K memory and disk drive.

Sysop Santa Claus doesn't know if you've been bad or good – but he does know how to figure out what gifts you, your friends and family want for Christmas or any other festive occasion.

Now that Santa owns an Atari cormputer he doesn't have to live at the chilly North Pole anymore. Rumor has it that he and Mrs. Claus are taking it easy in Tahiti with the elves and reindeer; while using a gigantic gift database and his 8-bit Atari to do all the work of gift selection.

Now you too can take it easy when selecting Christmas gifts. Antic uploaded Santa's gift list online to CompuServe's SIG *Atari. (You'd be typing until Easter if we printed that entire gift database as a type-in listing.)

Easy-to-follow instructions for downloading and using the database will be waiting for you on Compuserve ANTIC ONLINE. (See the ANTIC ONLINE story in this issue if you need information about how to obtain a CompuServe subscription.)

You pay only the standard connect time charges for what should be a 15- 20 minute download at 300 baud. And then the program will be yours to use for many holidays, birthdays and anniversaries to come. The gift database includes all types of presents – such as neckties, bathrobes and sports equipment as well as the electronic and computer goodies.

What if you don't have a modem? You can order the gift database on disk PD066 from the Antic Catalog for $10. Use the order form or the toll- free phone number this issue's Antic Catalog. (Sorry, because of the magazine's production schedule deadlines it would be impossible to create an up-to-date Christmas '85 gift list in time for this issue's regular monthly Antic Disk. -ANTIC ED).

GETTING STARTED

Type in Listing 1, SYSANTA.BAS, check it with TYPO II and SAVE a copy before you RUN it.

This issue's type-in Gift Selector program will ask you questions about the recipient – such as favorite color; hobbies and interests, etc. Then the Gift Selector will sort through the Sysop Santa database (which you'll download, or obtain from the Antic Catalog) to find a perfect gift.

If you download the database from CompuServe, you may need to rename it GIFTS.DAT. This is the only filename that the Gift Selector program will recognize.

Scott Anthony programmed Sysop Santa Claus on an Apple IIe for the holiday Issue of Antic's sister publication II Computing. The Atari conversion was made by Bill Marquardt.

Listing 1: SYSANTA.BAS Download