"dmolony"  wrote in message 
news:5a35b9a6-21c5-4beb-aaab-75711e655a0f{at}q26g2000prq.googlegroups.com...
>And try reading those one-line competition winners!

Well, that is more like bathos than pathos. It's so pathetic that it is 
funny. And sometimes it is worth a belly laugh.

Like Bert Kersey and Jack Cassidy's Beagle Pro-Byter which provided 
CALL.BASIC... here's what the manual says...

Beagle Bros. one-liners alway made me smile anyway. Who'd a thunk anyone 
could have created a culture based on bad programming style?

[page 37]

CALL. BASIC

CALL.BASIC is a program which converts one-line Applesoft programs into 
routines which can be executed by a single CALL statement. The routines can 
be installed anywhere in memory (within reason).

CONVERTING YOUR ONE-LINER:

-Type "CALL.BASIC" to get CALL.BASIC running.
-Press "E" to Exit.
-Enter your one-liner as Line 1 (see OneLiner Rules below).
-Test your one-liner by typing "RUN 1". Make sure it works!
-Type "RUN" to get CALL.BASIC running again.
-Press "A" to Assemble your one-liner.
-When asked, type a file name for your routine so it can be saved on disk.
-If you want to edit Line 1 later, Save CALL.BASIC under a new name.

USING YOUR ROUTINE:

Let's say you have a routine on disk called "NAME" that prints your name. 
Let's say you want this routine to occupy memory starting at location 25000. 
(If you don't know about memory allocation, use 25000 for now.)

-Type "BRUN NAME,A25000" to load your routine.
-Type "CALL 25000" to print your name. From now on, you only need to CALL 
25000 to print your name. You can even type "NEW", and CALL 25000
will still 
work. You don't need to BRUN NAME again unless your routine gets 
overwritten.

The following program uses your name routine:

10 NAME=25000: PRINT CHR$(4)"BRUN NAME,A";NAME
30 PRINT "MY NAME THREE TIMES:"
40 CALL NAME: CALL NAME: CALL NAME

ONELINER RULES

-A oneliner must be a "self-contained" program than runs on its own.
-No GOTO's, GOSUB's or ProDOS commands are allowed.
-Your oneliner cannot be called from within a fornext loop. It may contain 
for-next loops, however.

CALL.BASIC ADVANTAGES

-Many routines can be stored on disk until you need them.
-Many routines can be hidden in memory (at different addresses), taking up 
no Applesoft program space. All routines are relocatable.
-You can call a routine by name instead of a number. For example, you can 
use "CALL BOXDRAW" instead of "GOSUB 500".
-You can "pass" variables into a routine. For example,
"X=10: Y=50: CALL 
BOX" could draw a box at location X, Y.

CALL.BASIC LIMITATIONS

-Routines operate at normal Applesoft speed; this is not a compiler.
-Routines take up more space than they normally would.
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