Telephone



This program is a fast data storage and retrieval mecha-

nism. I think that its most popular application will be to

store names, addresses and telephone numbers and so I have

called it Telephone. The text in line 2010 also calls it

"Telephone and Address pad" but there is no reason why you

shouldn't change this if you wish to use it for other

purposes. You could use this program to store details of

collections (stamps etc.) or as a memo notepad to remind

you of things, you will probably think of other applica-

tions as I describe how it works.

  The program clears a block of about 6K bytes of memory

for data storage (that's enough for about 80 names,

addresses and telephone numbers). Entries of any length can

be made into this free memory, and are stored sequentially.

Entries may contain any number of lines of text although if

more than 22 lines are used, they will not all be visible

on the screen at once. The text may contain any of the

letters, numbers and symbols available from the keyboard,

including keywords and colour change codes. It is even

possible to have entries with sections picked out in

flashing colours with different levels of brightness.

  Finding an entry is very simple. All you need to do is

enter an identifying key of up to 6 characters and a fast

machine code search routine will find the first entry that

contains that sequence of letters. You must remember that

the computer distinguishes between upper and lower case and

so you are advised to adopt some standard for their use

when making entries. The identifying key must contain

exactly the same characters as the entry. This method of

finding entries allows you to remember and hence enter only

the minimum amount of information and still find the entry.

If however you can only remember that the entry had a

letter E in it, then you will probably find that the

computer presents you with a lot of entries before it finds

the correct one. Here is an example of an entry with some

valid and some invalid identifying keys.



        Mr & Mrs Upandcoming

        Excellendcareerprospects View

        Ontheright Rd

        Milton Keynes [!! - RLB]

        (1234) 56789



Valid identifying keys      Invalid keys

Mr                          mr

&                           Road

Upand                       z

Milton                      Rd.

ynes

34)

e



  When you first run the program, whether you have loaded

it from cassette or typed it in, the screen will go blank

for a few seconds and the report code 9 will appear, "STOP

Statement". You must now delete lines 1000, 1010, 1020 and

1030 by typing in each of these numbers in turn followed by

ENTER. You must next type GO TO 2000 followed by ENTER and

the program will be ready to go. [However, see below for

the versions of the program as they appear on the TZX.]

You have three options.



1. New entry

  Type in your details just as you would on a typewriter.

To start a fresh line press ENTER. At the end of your last

line press ENTER twice and your details will be stored away

automatically.



2. Find change or delete an entry

  First you must enter an identifying key. You will then be

presented with all of the entries containing that key and

you will be asked to indicate which one you are interested

in. You can then choose to delete it, change it or leave it

alone by entering a capital D, L or C. If you choose to

delete it, it will simply be deleted and you will be asked

to enter a new copy.



3. Save onto tape

  Whenever you change the data, it is necessary to save the

new version onto tape. You will, therefore, need at least

one blank tape. After you have saved the program and

variables, the computer will ask you to rewind the tape to

play it back and verify the recording against the contents

of memory.

[ Naturally, this feature works just as well before any

entries have been made, and the result is an auto-running

version of the program with the machine code pre-loaded,

just as if you'd just deleted lines 1000-1030 and GOne TO

2000. It is this which is on the TZX as "Telephone"; of

course, the original version with the machine code still

in a DATA statement is also on the TZX, as "TelephOrig". ]





  The fast machine code routines are stored in hexadecimal

form in a DATA statement at the start of the program. you

are not expected to be able to understand how these work.

Lines 1000 to 1030 contain, also, a short basic routine to

clear enough memory for data storage and load the machine

code into the bottom of that memory. After this has been

done, lines 1000 to 1030 are redundant, and so they are

removed to make more space.

  One use of this program would be, as mentioned above,

as a general notepad. You could make an entry such as

"Tuesday 14th visit mum, collect dry cleaning, babysitting

at Margarets". Then you might suddenly remember that you

have left your clothes to be dry cleaned by cannot remember

when they will be ready, so you enter "dry" as your key and

up comes the entry, or you may have forgotten what you were

talking to Margaret about over the weekend, so you enter

"Marg" and up it comes. In the end if you forget where you

have left your spectrum this program won't help very much.