STARTERS

     I've found that it is convenient for me to set up certain
procedures so that I can more easily handle PTDOS and BASIC. One
of the procedures that I find particularly useful is a set of
STARTER PROGRAMS. I store these programs in text format so that
I can append them easily and so they don't show when I ask for a
catalog. They are given the attribute 'I' so that they don't
show on a listing of the files unless I use the S=-I option.
     Briefly, the starter programs are a set of six programs
names S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5.  The smallest starter program,
S0 has only a few steps. These steps are the first few steps in
program S1. Program S1 on the other hand is the first few steps
in the program S2 and so on. I use one of the starter programs
as the beginning of any program that I write. This leads to a
uniform format for the beginnings of all of my programs. (For
instance, the S0 program will start with statement 10 which is..
10 REM-NAME                DISK NAME                    ##/##/##
As you can see, statement 10 reminds me to put the name of the
program and the disk on which it is stored and the date into the
new program's statement 10. Statement 20 is always a REM that is
used to briefly describe the program. Statement 30 is always a
statement that shuts off the printer, sets the cursor at the
bottom of cleared screen, and then transfers the program past
the rest of the starter steps to the beginning of the program.
The rest of the starter steps are in the form of subroutines so
that they can be referred to from anywhere in the program. Some
of these routines are...  A boxing routine to simplify the
boxing of message that is displayed on the terminal; A print
option routine that asks  0=DISPLAY;  1=PRINTER  The routine
will end the program if a space bar is entered, will repeat the
message if 0,1, or space is not entered, or will set the output
file to the printer if 1 is entered. The 1 goes into P9$ so that
I will always be using the same variable and can therefore know
that P9$ has to be looked at if a certain conditional jump is
to depend on the current print option; A pause routine that will
write PAUSE.. on the screen and will wait for a single character
string before continuing; a date entry routine that stores the
date entered into D1, D2, and D3; and a date entry routine that
allows for the entry of a date into D1, D2, and D3 and will
return the day of the week and ask for a verification.
     Naturally these routines are useful to me because I have
already developed a habit of using them. Other routines would
have similar value to other users.
                                           [Michael Richardson]