Re: Applesoft BASIC PRINTs 7 bit data?

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Heynony <nospam@noway.com> wrote:

> I still woudn't mind a cleaner method than this ML subroutine, if 
> anybody has further thoughts, as my program's print function has now 
> become a tedious process (breaking down the output data into strings and
> then shipping each string one ascii value at a time to the subroutine)
> but I'm just happy it's working.

A more convenient solution would to be use the & command, which calls a
machine language function via a JMP instruction poked into locations
$03F5 thru $03F7.

The command handler can make use of internal Applesoft BASIC functions
to parse parameters after the &, allowing you do things like pass an
entire string (or string expression) to the handler, which would then
output the characters one at a time, using COUT directly instead of the
Applesoft internal function which sets bit 7.  This would give you
something close to the normal PRINT statement but without forcing bit 7
to be set, and it would have better performance than Applesoft pulling
the string apart and outputting one character at a time.

I'd have to dig through old notes and do some experimentation in order
to provide a working code example.  Someone else may have already done
this (Nibble magazine, perhaps?)

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz