Long ago, way back in the mists of time, a small boy with scabby knees and a runny nose walked home from school clutching a large manila envelope. It was addressed to his parents and contained his school report. Amongst the comments about the boy's unremarkable academic abilities was one which stood out. In the section labelled "Handwriting", the teacher had written two words, 'Highly original'. This is a (boring) true story, I know, for "I was that boy!!!"
Even now, two hundred years after that tactful yet pointed remark first flushed my cheeks with shame, my handwriting is still atrocious (along with my guitar-playing and taste in socks!). Thank God for the word processor is all I can say! (Although it can't help the strumming or footwear.)
It strikes me that some of you dear readers may feel the same way about your own pen-wielding skills and if you don't own a word processor or printer, it might be preventing you from submitting letters or articles to EUG. Help is at hand!...
The program U.TEXTED will allow you to type in text and will then save it as a *SPOOLed file. Compared to even the most basic text editor, it's very primitive and you must ensure that every line is correct before you press RETURN as you can't alter a line once it's been entered. At least, not straight away. The program adds line number to the saved file automatically so you can *EXEC it without getting error messages. This also allows you to edit the file as a program should you wish to make corrections.
When you run this program, you are presented with a white Mode 3 screen with a black "?" at the top left of the screen. Each time you press RETURN, having typed in a line of text, a new "?" will appear below it.
In theory, each line could be over 200 characters long, but it's probably best to press RETURN every time the line of text nears the far right of the screen.
To end a typing session, enter the last line of your document as the word "stop", making sure all the letters are lower case and that no spaces precede or follow it. You will then be asked for a filename. Keep this short and memorable, type it in and press RETURN. The file will then be saved onto tape/disk - as long as you have a tape in the recorder or a disk mounted in the drive!
You can't load saved files back into U.TEXTED. Instead you must *EXEC them into your Electron, having first typed NEW to clear the memory.
Another advantage of text files submitted in this way is that they can be loaded into View and formatted straight away.
In spite of its limitations, this is a handy little program, which is quick and easy to get to grips with. It can help the production of the mag no end! Please give it a try!
If you don't own a View ROM cartridge or a printer, why not use this program to submit a contribution to the next or future issues of EUG? Your disk or tape will be returned to you with the next issue, so you will only have to pay the postage 'one-way'.
Will Watts, EUG #1