Hello LCD, here I am again! Apparently you didn't dislike my suggestions, since several of them were already implemented in issue 4. On the MENU screen, you actually went even further than I suggested. The idea of printing not only the issue number but also the item names directly from BASIC is very good in my opinion; I believe it will save you a lot of work and time in the future. Unfortunately, (1) the nice font from Issue 3 has vanished into thin air, and (2) there only seem to be 8 items now. A PITY, A REAL PITY!
And one more thing: (3) the sub-menus printed over the menu screen (in Windows style). Such "pop-up" menus are great, especially when they are immediately recognizable as menus (the latter could be done a bit better, I think).
So I took the (shamelessly) great liberty of tinkering with the menu program once again. First, I reopened the possibility of having 10 items on the menu screen; choosing between 8, 9, or 10 is now easy to implement. Then I tried to slim down the program a bit. Even though I was able to shave off a few bytes and make it somewhat more "uniform" at the same time, it did grow in length due to the adjustment regarding point (3). (Note: By uniform, I mean reusable across multiple issues). Perhaps some parts could also be done in machine code? If so, would it be possible to reverse the order of the "English message" and the sub-menu, meaning sub-menu first, then the English message? Seems more logical to me.
While we are on the subject of logic: why a menu that mixes English and German item names? It would be much nicer if everything were in German, though for international purposes a menu purely with English item names would also be acceptable. Only the mixture bothers me (by the way, that is something WoMo and Thomas/Fred are also guilty of). Therefore, I have saved two versions of the (new) menu program on the disk: one uses the old item names, the other (<name>ext) is a German-language example.
The startup loader has also been modified slightly. Maybe a POKE 23617,0 should also be incorporated here? Since the menu program pays attention to lower-case letters.
And then there is the little program "SCENE+Char" — well, just take a look at it and let yourself be surprised. Perhaps you can use something from it.
In the FOR/NEXT loops within the programs, I changed variable a to f or n; this is somewhat of a standardized convention among several programmers. It means that whenever someone sees the variables f or n somewhere in a program, they immediately know it is related to a FOR-NEXT loop. Similarly, i$ for INPUT or INKEY$, and e$ for an empty string. The use of x and y for PLOT and DRAW, or for screen columns and lines during "normal" printing, is another such standard. Perhaps this could be a topic for a short article series on "Standardized Programming in BASIC"? Would my German cause any problems there?
As a final point, I would like to respond to your statement that SCENE+ shouldn't turn into an OUTLET. That is a good thing — I mean not copying others. Although OUTLET looks very good and is put together quite nicely, EVERY magazine needs its OWN charm and style, otherwise one would merely be a shadow magazine.
Of course, that doesn't mean one shouldn't do or implement good things or ideas just because someone else has already done or used them. You can't always do everything differently; certain things just belong in a specific way, and what is GOOD shouldn't necessarily be changed. Still, there is plenty of room to forge an individual image (as you have proven in every issue). Even if OUTLET (Note: not a club magazine, but a semi-commercial operation) cannot be surpassed for the time being (does it really have to be?), SCENE+, in my opinion, is already a very solid second among Spectrum disk magazines, and it easily outclasses several long-running ones. I can only say: "LCD and SCENE+, long may they live!"
Best regards, Johan.
Tot de volgende keer. (Until next time)
J.W. Koning, Mieden 6, 9866TM Lutjegast, THE NETHERLANDS.
Hello Johan, thank you very much for the letter. I was very glad to see that you use Tasword II, and it was great meeting you in Cologne.
The idea of printing all menu items from BASIC occurred to me earlier, but I didn't want to give up my Amiga fonts. In the meantime, I have found a similarly usable font that doesn't take up too much memory, but I will also use the new font you sent me. The claim that there would only be 8 items was already refuted with Issue 5. However, to save space and nerves, starting from this issue the editorial and news sections are merged into the same category. It was never my intention to have exact Windows-style pop-up menus, but maybe one day I'll design the menu with icons?
I like your tweaks to the menu program, and since you rightfully criticized the mixed language in the menus, I expanded the program so that all menu items can now be toggled between German and English with a single keypress. A German diskmag with purely English menus would be cheek, but if I made all menus German, English and other foreign readers would stone me. I hope you like the idea. I will polish the machine code routine further; as you can see in this issue, I also coded an intro (which actually comes from "Legacy"; it will run even faster there).
Coding standards are something I established for myself as well, since I work a lot with compilers that cannot execute all commands. I can certainly accept standardized variable names, although I am used to allocating the alphabet from the beginning or from the end; that way, I always know which variable names are still free. If you want to write an article series on standardized programming, it is very welcome. If I can understand your texts, others certainly will too, or you can also write in English.
Well, I don't know Outlet yet, but it seems to have quite a few more active readers than SCENE. Let's see if that changes through the FPD distribution. Since I also review the latest scene software, things might turn around soon, as I could gather from Paul Howard's letter. Overtaking Outlet would be proof for me that my design ideas are better. That might happen very soon. For the future, I plan to reward every contribution (except ads, of course!) with two free SCENE issues or an equivalent subscription extension. However, these contributions shouldn't be existing PD, otherwise people will send in thousands of old PD programs. The header should state that it was written for SCENE+, just like Pyramid Patience. If someone later wants to release it as PD or freeware, I have no objection.
By the way, ZX Land isn't bad either; it's comparable to Alchnews or ETM, just much better programmed. Maybe I'll pick up a few tricks from the Poles as well.
— L.C.D.
Hello LCD! First of all, we'd like to tell you that we were very happy about your visit to the "Cologne Meetup". From Vienna, Cologne isn't exactly around the corner. We are keeping all our fingers crossed for your planned meeting in Vienna — and in the case of the WoMo family (as we are occasionally fondly called), that means a whole 8 thumbs! Congratulations on your diskmag. We can well appreciate how much work goes into it, especially since you code on the side as well. In any case, a (predominantly) German-language magazine for the Spectrum has been missing for a long time. Even though it is scorching hot here in Cologne right now and "work" is piling up over our heads, we still want to give you a hand and contribute something to the magazine again.
Therefore, we are sending you a few screens, mainly intended for use with DTP, the latest demo by Rüdiger Döring (CIR), and some of the newer PD games. See what you can use or want to include. This letter is also "Public Domain" and may be published — what else would be the point of writing it anyway? Help (darn missing umlauts in TW2, at least in this version), the computer is melting... so we'll wrap this up quickly.
Keep up the good work. The Speccy is still alive!
Greetings to you and all readers,
The WoMo-Team from Spectrum ProfiClub (featuring SAM also) in Cologne.
Hello WoMo Team! From Vienna to Cologne was just a hop, but the way back via Ulm was much worse because it started raining heavily, aquaplaning included. If I didn't code on the side, I would never have had the idea for a diskmag, and SCENE would have died by issue 3 of the paper mag at the latest. By coding around, several demos have emerged and SCENE+ gets improved continuously (by me, but Johan is working on it too!).
Thank you very much for the submissions! Naturally, they will go into SCENE+; hardly anything goes to waste here, and Skeleton Dance is so funny! By the way, if you haven't done so in your latest issue, you are welcome to publish my Interruptmaker (perhaps omitting the documentation to save space), as this tool seems to have hit like a bomb. It is, of course, freeware.
In this sweltering heat here (38 degrees in the shade! Phew!), I hope Vienna doesn't turn into a swamp with crocodiles, hippos, and piranhas by the time the club meeting takes place, otherwise no Spectrum user will dare come to Vienna. Though I feel like that's already the case: so far, only one Austrian has agreed to show up, and even that is not 100% confirmed.
— L.C.D.
Hi there LCD! Thanks for your letter and Software. Scene Plus is definitely the best program magazine around, much better than Outlet which costs over £3 per issue! The interrupt maker should be very useful when I want to use Dave's tunes (he is writing one for me at the moment) within a BASIC program. I'll pass your BBT votes when I next write to Cap'n Bob. NFC is a good Demo and it doesn't look compiled to me! I've also heard the tune before but I don't know where.
— Paul Howard, Impact PD.
Hi Paul, thank you for the letter. I'm happy that you enjoy SCENE+ and the programs included, and that you will use them in your own programs. NFC is compiled, but I used the fastest scroll routine ever coded by me. I know now that there is a way to code an even faster scroll using POP and PUSH. I believe you that you have probably heard the song somewhere in other demos. I received it from Cats Eye, so it is probably ripped from another demo.
— L.C.D.
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