Reader's Feedback
The Editors and Readers of COMPUTE!
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions you would like to see addressed in this column, write to "Readers' Feedback," COMPUTE!, P.O. Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403. Due to the volume of mail we receive, we regret that we cannot provide personal answers to technical questions.
SpeedScript File Resurrected?
I recently experienced an odd thing when using SpeedScript on my Commodore 128 in 64 mode. After writing a document, I pressed the RESET switch to go back to 128 mode. Then I decided to go back to 64 mode to finish up the document. When I reloaded and ran SpeedScript, I saw the same document that was in memory before I reset the computer. Shouldn't the memory have been cleared during this process? Does this mean that my 128 running in 64 mode isn't fully compatible with a normal 64?
Chris HicksTo answer your last question first, this experience does not signal any sort of incompatibility. Your computer behaved exactly as a normal 64 with a RESET switch would under the same circumstances. The 64's reset routine does not erase or scramble everything in the computer's memory; that happens only when you turn the computer off and on again. (For more details, see "64 RAM Report" in the June 1986 installment of this column.)
SpeedScript erases all of its text storage space when you first run the program, but not if you rerun it during the same session. When you run SpeedScript, it checks to see whether a special memory location contains the "I was here before" flag. If this flag is present, SpeedScript concludes that it was used previously in this session and sets up without erasing any text. Resetting the computer doesn't disturb either the memory area where text is stored or the location that holds the flag. So when you reran SpeedScript, the text was still there.
This feature of SpeedScript permits you to exit to BASIC if necessary, then reactivate the word processor without losing all of your work. As long as you don't load a different program or perform operations that change the contents of BASIC program space (or the memory location where SpeedScript stores the flag), any previous text should remain intact. To play it safe, of course, you shouldn't exit to BASIC more often than necessary. SpeedScript permits you to view the disk directory and send commands to the disk drive without leaving the program.