On The Blink C Drop a whatever you're doing and read on. i l How many times have you been developing i a large scale Basic program n and wished that there was an easier way? Now there is because g Blinker-64 from Information Develop- a ment Systems has come to your rescue. l Just what is Blinker-64? The answer l is quite simple: Bunker-64 is a linkage B editor for Basic programs. It enables a programs to be constructed from s a number of small modules stored i as files on one or more disks. c The main advantages to this approach p to programming are firstly that r small modules or subroutines are easier o to handle, edit arid debug. Secondly, g programming in Basic is made more productive and enjoyable. r Modules developed for one program a can be saved as part of a library of m modules and used as component parts of mothers as easily as standard Basic statements. e As your library grows, so your r ability to produce larger and more s complex programs increases. ! Basically, Blinker-64 allows the programmer to make up a program of subroutines, then knit them togther to form a whole, The following example should show this clearly. Normal Basic Program 10 P0KE53280. 0:P0KE53281,0: POKE646.2 15 GOSUB500 20 PRINT "NOW IS THE TIME ETC ETC" 20 GOSUB600 30 PRINT "PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE" 40 GOSUB 700 50 END 500 P0KE53265, PEEK (53265) AND 239 510 RETURN C64 REVIEW Basic programmers take heart. This new software from Information Development Systems should make life a lot easier. By Paul Eves 500 P0KE53265.PEEK (53265) OR 16 620 RETURN 700 WA1T198.1:POKE198,0 720 RETURN As you can see, this program is made up of a number of subroutines, some may be called repeatedly, others only once. Trying to keep track of all these subroutines in a large program can become tiresome. Moreover the next time you write something else you have to re-do all the subroutines again which can become very monotonous. With h Blinker-64 the above program would look like this: Blinker-64 Program 10 P0KE53280,0: P0KE53281,0: PO K E646,2 20 GOSUB"SCREEN OFF" 30 PRINT "NOW IS THE TIME ETC ETC" 40 GOSUB "SCREEN ON" 50 PR1Nr'PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE" 60 GOSUB "GET KEY" 70 END The subroutines 'screen off', 'screen on' and 'get key' would be individual files saved on your library disk. When Blinker-64 is invoked with your blink command, it runs through your BASE program (i.e. the one in memory). Whenever it comes across a GOSUB 'xxx', it fetches that subroutine from your disk and appends it at the end of your base program. After all operations have been done it renumbers the entire program, substituting your named subroutines for numbered ones. The above fi les are known as CODE files. One other use of Blinker- 64 is the handling of DATA files. The principle is the same, with a couple of exceptions. Data files can only contain REM and DATA token words. Any other token word would YOUR COMMODORE january 1987 56 result in a fatal error. There is a maximum of 255 distinct module references that can be appended in a single run_ Line number values, previously considered important when appending or merging Basic programs, are now of little consequence. Blinker-64 always produces a correctly numbered program, regardless of line numbers in any constituency source module, Whenever Blinker-64 finishes a run, a summary screen is displayed giving some simple statistics about the linked program. The summary looks like this: 1. Start of BASIC — Lower limit of BASIC memory area 2. Start of VARIABLES — End address of BASIC program 3. Top of BASIC — Upper limit of BASIC memory area 4. CODE modules named — Number of Code modules included, including base mod. 5. CODE modules included — Number of modules in linked program 6. DATA modules named — Number of DATA modules specified on command line 7. DATA Modules included —Number of DATA modules included in linked program 8, Bad Filenames — Number of illegal module references encountered 9. Bad line numbers — Number of illegal line numbers encountered. There is so much more I could say about the program, unfortunately space is running out. All I need say is that after trying this program out. I felt that no Basic programmer should be without it. Touchline Company: Information Development Systems. Address: 24 Deerings Rd, Reigate, Surrey. Tel; 07372 22755 Price: 129.90.
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