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From: DEC.BANKS@MARLBORO.DEC.COM
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Help with AbasiC
Message-ID: <553@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 25-Nov-85 14:45:55 EST
Article-I.D.: caip.553
Posted: Mon Nov 25 14:45:55 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Nov-85 05:26:42 EST
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Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: Dawn Banks <DEC.BANKS@MARLBORO.DEC.COM>

   A couple of points here about ABasiC:

First, "Screen 1,4,0" does get you into hi res (therefore 80 column) mode. It
also gives you 4 bit planes worth of graphics, which as previous mail on this
list has shown steals lots of cycles.  The machine can run a lot faster if
you only use two bit planes ("Screen 1,2,0").

Secondly, in re getting the workbench screen back while running Basic stuff:
We've also burned off a lot of computes doing Mandelbrot zooming.  Aside from
being able to do something else with the machine while it's zooming, it may
also run faster if you're using hi res 4 bit plane graphics (as above), since
the workbench screen only uses 2 planes.

We've done a little more research as to when you can and can't get the 
workbench screen.  As we've not gotten our developer's kit yet (listening
Amiga????), excuse the clumsy terminology, as we've only an emperical idea
of what's happening here:  If you get to the CLI, and say "ABASIC" to run
basic (after setting stack to 8000, of course), the CLI doesn't accept
anymore commands until ABasiC exits.  WHen this is the case, it's terribly
difficult to get the Workbench/CLI screen back, and once you do, the CLI isn't
going to accept anything.  If, on the other hand, you initiate ABasiC with
"RUN ABasiC", the CLI will continute to accept commands, and the screen
selection gadgets on the ABasiC screen suddenly start working like they're 
supposed to.  I guess the deal here is that it doesn't readily give you the
old Workbench screen back if there's no one there to talk to.  Running the
clock program definitely gives you someone to talk to, so no problems.  Giving
the shell command "NewCLI" (is that it? I've renamed mine already) will also
spawn a new CLI in the workbench screen.

As a last point for MandelHackers: As I've mentioned, it's a good idea to 
"bury" the ABasiC screen under something that steals cycles less if you're
computing to 4 bit plane hi res.  The only problem with that is that you don't
know the progress of the program if you can't see it.  This is easily solved
by openning a window on the Workbench screen, and displaying the progress.
This can be done by openning "CON:0/10/100/20/Mandelbrot", then outputting
the progress to it, say every line like "Print #1, CHR$(27);"[HCurrent line:";
ScreenY%;"

We've got the inner loop hand coded in assembler, callable from an ABasiC
program.  This speeds up computation by a factor of 25 or more.  If there's
any interest, I can make the source (Basic DATA statements, 'cause we STILL 
DON'T HAVE OUR DEVELOPER'S KIT) available.
   --------