40 column word processor?

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:43 pm

I did a quick search on Google and on here, and I see no mention anywhere of a 40 column word processor for the VIC-20. I know there were several 80 column programs for the C64 - I'm just wondering if there is one out there? If not, maybe I have to build my own - add that to my list of stuff that I'll start and never finish! LOL!

Thanks!

Rick Towns
Barrie, Ontario, CANADA

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:57 pm

I'm not sure about 40 columns but there is an 80 column word processor for the VIC-20 that requires a Data-20 or Protecto 80 (different names for identical 40/80 column cartridges). I don't know of any that run without the dedicated hardware.

You could always write a simple word processor in BASIC that would work with one of the 40 column programs (FAT 40, Super Screen, Screen-40, VIC 40 etc.) Come to think of it, KP Word Pro is BASIC so it might work. I'll have to try that out.

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:03 am

Strange things happen. The program seems to work "as is" in VICE with 8K+ RAM, but if I stop it and LIST, the end of BASIC listing seems to be somehow corrupted (random chars, pi greek, etc.).

Setting RAM to 16K or to full blocks and loading FAT40 before, it doesn't work at all:

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:33 am

Perhaps it lowers top of RAM to make room for some buffers, and together with the Fat-40 there isn't enough space left within the ~24K of continuous RAM you have.

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:38 am

I had a look at FAT-40, but I don't really like the font design too much. I much prefer Compute's Screen-40 program. That's what I run all the time. I elected to build my own simple word processor instead of trying to get someone elses to work. Well, really my program is more like Windows Notepad than an actual word processor. I just need something I can edit .cfm files in, so I can program for work on my VIC! LOL!

It's about 30% done - hoping to have it finished for this week sometime. Hey... another project I might actually finish! What is going on here? LOL!

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:00 pm

Here's a screenshot of the word processor. It's coming a long nicely! It's written entirely in BASIC, but since it doesn't use a lot of variables or arrays, it's plenty fast enough...

Rick

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 2:00 pm

BBQedIguana wrote:I had a look at FAT-40, but I don't really like the font design too much. I much prefer Compute's Screen-40 program.

Here's an ASCII font I designed for another project I'm currently involved with. The upper case letters are only 6 pixels high, but there are still 8 pixels total, which IMO gives a more eye-pleasing line spacing:

In the Screen-40 version I had found on Zimmers, I couldn't enable lower case. How did you do it?

Hey... another project I might actually finish! What is going on here?

A 40-column text editor might have been a nice follow-up project for me after releasing the 1.0 version of MINIPAINT. So I'm glad another fellow here takes up the task.

Cheers,

Michael

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:56 pm

Mike wrote:In the Screen-40 version I had found on Zimmers, I couldn't enable lower case. How did you do it?

That is a cool font! It might be nice to have some vertical spacing between the lines. I believe Screen-40 allows me to set the character set to whatever I want (since it's already in RAM).

To switch between upper and lower case, print a CHR$(6) - it is annoying that it's a toggle, instead of two different calls for upper and lower. I haven't figured out a way yet to auto-detect which case the VIC is in for my programs.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:55 am

BBQedIguana wrote:To switch between upper and lower case, print a CHR$(6)[...]

This is the "play" control code used in Super Expander ..., you can also produce it by pressing Ctrl + Left arrow key, and it will appear as inverse F within quotes.

I haven't figured out a way yet to auto-detect which case the VIC is in for my programs.

One quick search within Screen-40 led me to this code snippet:

Code: Select all

; Entered with A=6, when CHR$(6) should be output.
.C:2428   A2 18      LDX #$18
.C:242a   DD 38 26   CMP $2638,X
.C:242d   F0 19      BEQ $2448    ; A=6 => X=14, and jumps.
.C:242f   CA         DEX
.C:2430   10 F8      BPL $242A
[...]
.C:2448   E0 04      CPX #$04
.C:244a   90 0C      BCC $2458
.C:244c   A5 D4      LDA $D4
.C:244e   F0 08      BEQ $2458
.C:2450   A5 D7      LDA $D7
.C:2452   10 B6      BPL $240A
.C:2454   09 40      ORA #$40
.C:2456   D0 AE      BNE $2406
.C:2458   20 5E 24   JSR $245E
.C:245b   4C 1F 24   JMP $241F
.C:245e   BD 68 26   LDA $2668,X
.C:2461   48         PHA
.C:2462   BD 50 26   LDA $2650,X
.C:2465   48         PHA          ; for X=14 these two PHA's push $2480 - 1 on the stack.
.C:2466   60         RTS
[...]
.C:2480   AD 87 02   LDA $0287
.C:2483   49 04      EOR #$04
.C:2485   2C A9 00   BIT $00A9
.C:2488   2C A9 04   BIT $04A9
.C:248b   8D 87 02   STA $0287
.C:248e   60         RTS

... which toggles 647 between 0 for upper case, and 4 for lower case.

That is a cool font! It might be nice to have some vertical spacing between the lines. [...]

If you're interested in using this font, PM me your e-mail. I'll then send you the original definition, and save you the hassle of extracting that from the *.png file.

Greetings,

Michael

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 9:10 am

Mike wrote:... which toggles 647 between 0 for upper case, and 4 for lower case.

Beautiful! Thanks for finding that! That will help me a lot.

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 1:53 pm

Ah! I'm antangonizing my coworkers by sending them my code in screenshot format! LOL!

Gotta get the syntax checker working - it let me improperly close my CFQUERY tag! LOL!

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:54 am

BBQedIguana wrote:It's about 30% done - hoping to have it finished for this week sometime. Hey... another project I might actually finish! What is going on here? LOL!

Hey Rick, are you still there? One week passed since then!

Hope to see your 40 column wordprocessor / notepad finished...

In the meantime, see what I came across - funny memories about what word processing was in the early 1980s.

http://home.att.net/~arendtj/word_proc_h_01.html

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:11 am

My friend John Stilwell owned a Commodore Vic-20 ...

It is a small, small world that we're living in. The guy I mentioned a few weeks ago who had sent me an email about his named mentioned on Denial was no less than John Stilwell!

orion70 · Post by **orion70** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:21 am

Maybe the Degrees of Separation are less than six...

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:14 pm

Did this ever get released publically (the 40 column notepad)? I would love to see Speedscript running in 40 columns on the VIC!

Denial

40 column word processor?

40 column word processor?

Re: 40 column word processor?

Re: 40 column word processor?