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From: neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: Re: Problems with Atari Basic
Message-ID: <121@atari.UUcp>
Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 14:42:29 EST
Article-I.D.: atari.121
Posted: Wed Feb 26 14:42:29 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Mar-86 16:40:43 EST
References: <146@molihp.UUCP>
Organization: Atari Corp/Mktg
Lines: 75

In article <146@molihp.UUCP>, markr@molihp.UUCP (Mark Reid) writes:

> After waiting over three months for my basic from Atari, I finally
> received it. Either the manual is incorrect or maybe I'm thick
> but I can't get some of the functions to work as described in the
> manual. I would appreciate any help...
> 
> 1) inp()   function is supposed to read from the keyboard single
> 	characters. I tried inp(-4) to read the status and it only
> 	returns 16. Try inp(4) which also returns 16. Anybody know
> 	how this works?

The manual is in error -- use INP(2) and INP(-2).  Using SYSTAB to turn off
GEM will make this work very well.

> 2) wave()   function for producing sound. Manual page is missing the
> 	table for envelope shape. Would like a complete explaination.

WAVE a,b,c,d,e
 a=voice to enable.  1 is the default (which is why the SOUND command only
   uses 1 voice normally.  Add 2 to use voice 2, add 4 to use voice 3.  Add 8
   to use noise on voice 1, 16 for noise on 2, 32 for noise on 3.

 b=envelope enable, to use the programmable envelope instead of pure tone.
   Add 1 for voice 1, 2 for voice 2, 4 for voice 3.

 c=which envelope to use.
     	0-3= \________

        4-7= /|_______

    	8=   \|\|\|\|\|

	9=   \_________

	10=  \/\/\/\/\/

	11=    ________
	      \|

	12=   /|/|/|/|/|

	13=    _________
	      /

	14=   /\/\/\/\/\

	15=  /|_________

 d=period of envelope.  Use large numbers, in hundreds or thousands.

 e=duration of sound before next BASIC command is executed.  Usually 0.

NOTE: Best technique seems to be to set WAVE then set SOUND for each voice,
      setting delay>0 only on the _last_ SOUND command.

> 3) buf graphics   what is this? I didn't understand it's use.

This sets up a 32K graphics buffer, so menus and other windows do not
obliterate your graphics.

> 4) large files    If you try to load in a very large basic program
> 	the 520 will load the file from the disk in one large piece,
> 	then several small pieces. It tells you of no errors.
> 	The real magic is it will give you all sorts of undefined
> 	errors, none of which are out of memory errors.

Are you sure?  I never had that problem with my programs.  How large is
large?

--->Neil @ Atari
    Usenet: ...lll-crg!vecpyr!atari!neil
    CIS: 70007,1135
    BIX: neilharris
    Atari BBS: 408-745-5308