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Splash Scree

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2020 5:44 pm
by Reboot
Inspired by a patch to MTASM, the MEMOTECH Z80 assembler,
https://www.sinclairzxworld.com/viewtop ... 830#p33830
and a Z80 coding challenge answered by Zeddy enthusiasts,
https://www.sinclairzxworld.com/viewtop ... 810#p24810
I've created ts-splsh.p for my new ZXpand+:

ts-splsh.p

Image

Usage:

Although it should function fine on most systems (see Caveats below), it was designed for use with my rejuvenated TS-1000 and my new ZXpand+. On ZXpand+ rename the file MENU.P. If you previously supported another auto-boot program, e.g. AUTOPROG, consider adding:

Code: Select all

15 LOAD "AUTOPROG"
Caveats:

It's been optimized for running on systems with more then 3¼KB after a power-up or CLS, i.e. it expects the longer space padded lines, or bad things may happen. E.g., try entering:

Code: Select all

100 FOR I=1 TO 100
110 SCROLL
120 NEXT I
130 GOTO 10

GOTO 100  
Modifying:

MTASM uses the assembly source included in the variable A$. If you have no intentions of modifying the assembly, faster loads can be achieved by issuing:

Code: Select all

CLEAR
GOTO 30
This only needs to be done once. If you'd like to modify the assembly for compatibility with short lines, in addition to counting 8 newlines, you'll need to replace 237 on line 24 with 6.

Tweak:

For it's ZX81 sibling (disclaimer:zx81 untested) try:

zx-splsh.p

Enjoy!

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:34 pm
by mrtinb
Cool.

An easy way to look at the source is to add these 3 lines:

Code: Select all

50 FOR X=1 TO 9999
60 PRINT A$(X)
70 NEXT X
Then you type GOTO 50 to show a screenfull of source code, and CONT to display the next etc.

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:29 pm
by mrtinb
P.S. I’m glad you like my patch. :)

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:49 pm
by Lardo Boffin
Looks impressive.

Going slightly off topic what did you use to create your gif?

Thanks!

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 5:25 pm
by mrtinb
I think both EightyOne and other emulators support recording the screen to animated GIFs. I've used it my self to demonstrate my programs.

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:38 am
by Lardo Boffin
Thanks. I will have a look.

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:34 pm
by stroebeljc
mrtinb wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:34 pm Cool.

An easy way to look at the source is to add these 3 lines:

Code: Select all

50 FOR X=1 TO 9999
60 PRINT A$(X)
70 NEXT X
Then you type GOTO 50 to show a screenfull of source code, and CONT to display the next etc.
mrtinb, I am unfamiliar with MTASM and am curious about the graphics characters at the end of each line of the program. What do they mean?
Program Listing
Program Listing

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020 9:51 pm
by mrtinb
stroebeljc wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:34 pm mrtinb, I am unfamiliar with MTASM and am curious about the graphics characters at the end of each line of the program. What do they mean?
zx-splsh.jpg
These chars are not shown, when you edit the source inside the assembler. You are not supposed to display the source this way, but it was just a little hack because we can see in the manual, that the source is kept in the first variable, which must be string array. The manual tells us the last char on each line is used to address calculation.
The ADD and EDIT options allow you to create a source code program in a
character array. THIS ARRAY MUST LIE AT THE START OF THE VARIABLES AREA.
Thus, before you start a new piece of source code you must first clear out
any variables already defined and dimension your array. The array can
contain as many lines as you like (as long as your memory is large enough)
but must have a line length of exactly 22 characters. The last character of
each line is used by the assembler routine to calculate addresses. Two extra
lines are reserved for use by the editor. So if you wanted to have space for
50 lines You would type:

CLEAR
DIM A$ (52, 22)

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 11:19 pm
by Reboot
Lardo Boffin wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:49 pm Looks impressive.

Going slightly off topic what did you use to create your gif?

Thanks!
Hi Lardo,

I just max'd out the delay, used a screen snapshot tool capable of incrementing file names, set it for rectangular region over the emulator, clicked away, and loaded the results into gimp to animate.

Re: Splash Scree

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 11:26 pm
by Reboot
mrtinb wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:29 pm P.S. I’m glad you like my patch. :)
Thanks for your time saving MTASM patch.
mrtinb wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 5:25 pm I think both EightyOne and other emulators support recording the screen to animated GIFs. I've used it my self to demonstrate my programs.
I see EightyOne supports screen snapshots, but I was unaware it could generate animated GIFs.