U16028@uicvm.uic.edu (06/09/91)
I have two questions to which I hope someone has the answers, and will
share them with me.
Q1) What ever became of the "99/4A National Assistance Group". The group
was active, at least, in 1985. It was headquartered in
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Q2) In one of their newsletters, it was printed that entering
CALL INIT
CALL LOAD(-31878,0)
from Extended Basic would increase the speed of BASIC execution.
(This code, supposedly, disabled "something".)
Can anyone confirm that this really worked?
Thanks, in advance.
Terrymkheintz@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Michael Heintz) (06/10/91)
In article <91160.093541U16028@uicvm.uic.edu> U16028@uicvm.uic.edu writes: >I have two questions to which I hope someone has the answers, and will >share them with me. > >Q1) What ever became of the "99/4A National Assistance Group". The group > was active, at least, in 1985. It was headquartered in > Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Sorry, can't help you there. > >Q2) In one of their newsletters, it was printed that entering > CALL INIT > CALL LOAD(-31878,0) > from Extended Basic would increase the speed of BASIC execution. > (This code, supposedly, disabled "something".) > Can anyone confirm that this really worked? It's quite possible. I remember hearing of something like this before, as you said: from Extended Basic. One of the reasons BASIC is so slow is because, unlike other languages which are compiled and then run, BASIC compiles as it runs. I think there were Extended BASIC commands that allowed you to compile the whole program first, and then run the program. Since BASIC compiles as it goes, even if you execute a loop many times, each line is compiled before executing, which is an incredible waste of time. I'm not positive that this is what those commands do, but I have not programmed on the TI for quite some time, and I never owned Extended BASIC, though I did borrow the cartridge from a friend for about one week 7 or 8 years ago. > >Thanks, in advance. >Terry Hope this helps! Mike PS- can anyone convince me to upgrade my present TI system, which is basically a game system (rarely used)? I'm not sure if it is worth the investment, although I know parts are quite cheap nowadays. Also, does anyone still make clones or TI compatible computers or are we now left with an ever decreasing supply? PPS- Were TIs ever used in schools? Someone told me that he thinks a school system in there area is ready to upgrade their computers. He thought that the school was working on TI computers!? I'm going to check into this.. if it is true, it may be worthwhile to upgrade, and I may be able to offer some for sale through the network... details to follow...
edlee@chinet.chi.il.us (Edward Lee) (06/10/91)
In article <91160.093541U16028@uicvm.uic.edu> U16028@uicvm.uic.edu writes: >I have two questions to which I hope someone has the answers, and will >share them with me. > >[Sorry, I do not have an answer to the first one.] > >Q2) In one of their newsletters, it was printed that entering > CALL INIT > CALL LOAD(-31878,0) > from Extended Basic would increase the speed of BASIC execution. > (This code, supposedly, disabled "something".) > Can anyone confirm that this really worked? CALL LOAD(-31878,0) looks really familiar. I believe that that disables sprite motion. It is a quick way to make all the moving sprites on your screen stop simultaneously as opposed to using a FOR I=1 to LASTSPRITE::CALL MOTION(#I, 0, 0)::NEXT I loop which causes sprites to stop noticeably in sequence, due to all the overhead entailed by the XBASIC interpreter and the greater number of instructions. If you have a TI-99/4A, XBASIC, and a stopwatch, I suggest that you do some tests yourself to see if CALL LOAD(-31878,0) speeds up the non-sprite operations. -Ed L
mdchaney@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (M Darrin Chaney) (06/10/91)
In article <91160.093541U16028@uicvm.uic.edu> U16028@uicvm.uic.edu writes: >I have two questions to which I hope someone has the answers, and will >share them with me. > >Q1) What ever became of the "99/4A National Assistance Group". The group > was active, at least, in 1985. It was headquartered in > Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Sorry, I can't help you on this one. >Q2) In one of their newsletters, it was printed that entering > CALL INIT > CALL LOAD(-31878,0) > from Extended Basic would increase the speed of BASIC execution. > (This code, supposedly, disabled "something".) > Can anyone confirm that this really worked? Sure. That is the address ( >837A) of the number of sprites that will be moved by the interrupt routine. Another one to load with 0 is >837A (-31806), which will effectively disable the interrupt routine altogether. This does mean, of course, that Fctn-= will be disabled. Actually, that value is a mask, and you can selectively enable/disable items. Look through the sources posted here to figure out what the mask values are. If I remember correctly, there are 4 interrupt parts: sprite movement, quit key check, sound list play, and user routine. Darrin -- mdchaney@iubacs mdchaney@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu mdchaney@rose.ucs.indiana.edu
ewb6720@pacs.UUCP ( Eric W. Bray) (06/11/91)
In article <91160.093541U16028@uicvm.uic.edu>, U16028@uicvm.uic.edu writes: > I have two questions to which I hope someone has the answers, and will > share them with me. > > Q1) What ever became of the "99/4A National Assistance Group". The group > was active, at least, in 1985. It was headquartered in > Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. > > Q2) In one of their newsletters, it was printed that entering > CALL INIT > CALL LOAD(-31878,0) > from Extended Basic would increase the speed of BASIC execution. > (This code, supposedly, disabled "something".) > Can anyone confirm that this really worked? > > Thanks, in advance. > Terry ANSWERS Q1) That organization is now no longer in existance! Q2) That code is suppose to disable the machine's scanning for sprite data and attributes from the VDP memory. Thus if you had a XBASIC program that didn't need sprites you could add that statement and speed up the program a little bit.