Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!gatech!udel!mmdf
From: jwhitman@stl-06sima.army.mil (Jerry Whitman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Basic program questions
Message-ID: <759@nigel.udel.EDU>
Date: 4 Oct 89 15:39:23 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 51


Well it seems I have finally gotten some time to resume my attempt
to do a little BASIC programming on the AMY.

Having been soundly rebuffed in my attempts to scroll, input control
strings for the monitor, do keytrapping, etc, I am now trying to do 
some more generic things but I keep stubbing my toe, so I need a few
pointers on how AMY implements some things in BASIC.

I need a borderless window of 640 x 200, all usable by the program.
I have tried a variety of combinations of screen and window parameters,
and the closest I can get is a bordered, untitled window of 620 x 186.  
I need to display 25 lines of text, but this will only allow me 20 lines.
How can I get AmigaBASIC to let me have the whole window area?

If I cannot get the whole 640 x 200 there is another possible way to
get there from here.  The BASIC reference manual indicates it uses the
height and width of the uppercase oh of the windows current font to
determine cursor position.  This implies that if I had a slightly smaller
font size I could possibly get my 25 lines in the available 186 pixle high
display.  If this is true how can I tell a window to use a different font?
I presume it would be through the Library and Call functions, but the
BASIC manual does not give any reasonable explanation, let alone examples!

I believe there is a program in BasicDemos that will display each of the
standard fonts.  Would this be a good example to draw from?  Would this
allow me to mix different fonts of the same size in one window?  What
about different size fonts in the same window?	

Different subject!  The program I am working on is too large to load
without increasing the stack and data areas with the clear command.
I have put the clear command in the top of the program but as I suspected
it made no difference because it was not executed until the program was
fully loaded.  That prevents me from running the program from an icon.
If I start up BASIC and issue the clear command in immediate mode I can
load and run the program just fine.  How can I start up BASIC from an
icon and get it to recognize the increased space?  If I cannot do that
then perhaps this is a good candidate for CHAIN or MERGE.  Any ideas??

These are probably very elementary questions, but the time I have to
experiment is very, very limited since my sessions on the AMY are usually
short and far between.  Consequently I would greatly appreciate any help
that would keep me from re-inventing the wheel.

BTW!!  Since the Commodore AmigaBASIC manual is not very helpful on how
to utilize much of the functionality of the AMY what would be a good
book to use as reference for BASIC programming on the AMY??

Thanks for your patience and for the usual excellent response.

Regards,   Jerry.