JEAN PARROT wrote to JAMES BRADLEY, "Batch file" on 07-06-05 10:01

 JP>          Hello James, I wish you a nice day!

 JB> I know you aren't interested in being a terminal jockey, I was just
 JB> hoping to show how simple it can be.

 JP>         I know it can be simple, computors are straight and
 JP>   forward but unremitting of any iota changed. I am the one not
 JP>   simple. I wrote a PRG for the C= 128 that did astro-navigation
 JP>   for me. All in spherical trig. And the C= did not have all the
 JP>   trig functions in its OS, one had to circumvent this. The
 JP>   formualea were in the manual. The PRG gave the seeked side to a
 JP>   polar triangle. Like finding distance and direction from A to B.
 JP>   That PRG took me days to write, I could not remember from one
 JP>   step to the next, the make up of a step to write, I was in the
 JP>   manual full-time. Took too long so that was the extend on my
 JP>   trying to control a computor. I had a line that gave the answer
 JP>   in statute, nautical or metric measures.

Now that *could* be handy. Today, I buy some astral nav CD from the
 second hand store for two bucks. I didn't look for distance
 conversion, but there is freeware to do that too.

I have been poking my head in homebuilt magazines for a while now, and
I always get a giggle when I fathom (NOT a deliberate pun!) conic
sections and their measures. Maybe I am a nerd? 

 JB> Sorry if I talked your ear off.

 JP>         I really enjoyed this even if it showed my shortcomings. If
 JP>   anybody, I can live with them. James, I have fun anyway.

I think I asked once, if that's the most important thing. <-;

Now, I couldn't program a Waterloo Turtle today, but I'm sure glad I
was exposed to it. With the C=64, I had a basic language that allowed
me to peek and poke directly into machine code. I could never do much
beyond a few basic things, but I was screwing with registers. Ta hell
if it blew the cover off the thing. I could always afford another. 

The program you poured over, sounds like a NASA project, rather than a
newbie torture device. You were supplied enough to debug it as you
went? 


... James
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