Readers’ Feedback

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.

Cleanest Atari INPUT

This is in reference to your answer about cleaner Atari input in the October 1986, "Readers' Feedback." Your answer is the normally accepted solution to the problem of performing an INPUT without printing a question mark. However, this line works even better:

INPUT #16;A$

Besides being much shorter than what you suggested, this method eliminates the need to open and close files, and it reduces the risk of experiencing error 161 and other Input/Output Control Block (IOCB) errors above 128.

- Chris Witham

Thanks for the advice.