.IF DSK1.C3 

      

      ^^^^^^^TEXTWARE, SOFTWARE, and
  ELSEWHERE

      

      ^^^^^^^^^^^^TI Happenings

      

 
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^by Jack Sughrue

      

  

      

      One of the delightful things about
  doing these columns each month is
  setting the time aside to read the new
  books and magazines and try out the new
  software.  So often we fall victim to
  the "I would love to do more ___________
  ____________, but I just can't seem to
  find the time" syndrome.
      Well, with having to "do my duty"
  for M.U.N.C.H. every month, I must do my
  duty and read that book, play that disk,
  stick in that cartridge.  And get lost
  in the make-believe world of
  computerhood.  (All of us have our own
  forms of suffering.  I just choose the
  painless ones.)

      And, as I also choose what I wish to
  review, I have been choosing not to
  waste my time reviewing stuff I wouldn't
  recommend.  (Unless I slip into a foul
  mood and my Irish ire rises.) 

      So, another recommendation tonight.

      And from an old friend, the Howard
  W. Sams Co. (4300 West 62nd Street,
  Indianapolis, Indiana 46268).

      The Sams's combo packs are popular
  with many TI owners because they contain
  the books with the tapes of all the
  programs in the books.  Books and tapes
  can also be purchased separately.
  (Their latest catalog are in most
  user-group libraries and worth looking
  at.)

 
                    

      TI-99/4A GRAPHICS AND SOUNDS by
  Timothy Orr Knight (probably the richest
  young book-writing programmer in America
  today) is another excellent SAMS' combo.
  

      The book contains 37 programs, 5 of
  which can only run in BASIC.  The other
  32 can run in Extended or regular.  

      At first glance,, one feels it is a
  lesser work than the COMPUTE! book of
  similar title.  Second and third glances
  (and a little hands-on follow-along)
  will soon prove that this book is a
  wonderful tutorial, that the mini
  programs can easily be built into some
  wild and wonderful subroutines, that Mr.
  Knight has provided yet another superb
  book for us TI owners.

      This is a great book for the novice
  who has gone beyond the manual.  It is
  an equally fine book for the advanced
  programmer.

  

      This book could easily be renamed
  BASIC TRICKS FOR THE TI-99/4A, except
  that it is already a title for another
  SAMS book we'll be reviewing in the
  future.

      Meanwhile, back at the console - the
  wizards and warlocks gone, the alien
  spaceships gone, the eat-em-ups and
  shoot-em-downs gone - we're left with
  this computer staring us in the face and
  little to do.

      Well, you've created a "guess the
  number" game and you've tried a graphic
  stick figure dancing across the screen
  and you've had your name scroll up the
  screen two million times and you've put
  together five successive musical notes.

      All for the good.

      This book, however, lets you move
  into the big time (not BIG TIME or even
  Big Time, however).  You do not do
  quantum leaps.  This is a steady
  one-at-a-time approach that opens up
  that creative door and lets your
  imagination roam free.  Each of the
  mini-programs does a single thing (make
  a diagonal line, random dots, circles,
  triangles; create random periodic
  noises, white noises, up and down
  (swooping) sounds; develop basic
  animation techniques, sound techniques;
  draw three-dimensional and multiple
  combination graphics; learn how to
  downward scroll, horizontal scroll,
  change characters; and more) and does it
  well.  

      The end result is a compiled set of
  skills that lets you apply the learned
  information readily to numerous
  situations. (Do you remember the first
  time you changed the screen color on a
  simple program you wrote?  Remember how
  proud you felt?  How excited?  These
  programs let you re-experience that kind
  of pride and excitement at a little more
  advanced level.

      Constantly I found myself saying,
  "Oh, neato.  Now I get it."

      This is a good book (and better
  combo pack).  And it has a bit more than
  other similar books.  It has an appendix
  that list the color codes, the ASCII
  codes, the character sets and codes, the
  pattern identifier con ersion, and a
  very comprehensive list of musical
  frequencies.

      If this book is near your computer,
  you'll never need to rifle through
  manuals looking for quick references
  again.  (As a matter of fact, quick
  reference guides containing these pieces
  of information sell for $3.95 in card
  form.)

      The book alone is $9.95.  The tape
  is $7.95.  The combo pack - in a nice,
  hard, book-look container - is $16.95.
  I'd recommend either the book or pack,
  as the tape alone does not contain the
  valuable written tutorials.

      

      As a mention, I happen to have
  bought all the SAMS' books published to
  date (10, I think, off hand).  They are
  all excellent.  Each does what it sets
  out to do and does it well.  Can one ask
  any more of anybody?

        If you own lesser computers
  (Apple, whatever), SAMS also publishes
  some excellent books for them, too.

        The next time you go to a
  bookstore that carries TI stuff, look
  for the SAMS' books.  If you have enough
  money, buy any or all.  Then notify your
  user group that SOMEBODY somewhere is
  carrying TI books.

        

        This is so weird.

        Here we are in the throes of an
  incredible deluge of great software,
  mostly through Fairware, but we have
  dwindled almost to nothingness in
  textware.  And in those magazines who
  still publish but no longer support us
  (
FAMILY COMPUTING, COMPUTE!, etc.).
  Don't support them and don't support
  their advertisers without writing to the
  advertisers first and expressing your
  displeasure at being treated so
  abominably.

        I can't help feeling that a
  massive letter-writing campaign to these
  magazines would not have a turn-around
  effect. It worked once with 
COMPUTE!.
  It could again.

        

        Fight!

        

        [AUTHOR NOTE:  There wasn't enough
  fighting for FAMILY COMPUTING or,
  eventually, for COMPUTE!  So they're no
  longer available for us.  However, we do
  have MICROpendium and TIBITS and ASGARD
  NEWS and all those wonderful newsletters
  still being published.]

        

        Fight!  (by supporting what we do
  have)

 
        [Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas,
  MA 01516]

 
        **********

        

        If any newsletter editor prints
  these articles, please put me on your
  mailing list.  Thanks - Jack

 
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