VERSATILE INPUT

[file: Input]



Being able to position an input prompt and then accept characters and

display them immediately after the prompt ANYWHERE on screen and not

just at the bottom of the screen can give your program a professional

touch.



Andrew Smith of Cleveland provides us with a means of doing just that.



The subroutine is located at lines 9000 plus but can be renumbered to

suit your own needs. To use it set the screen position and provide a

prompt (ensure you end with a semicolon else the input will be on the

wrong line) and GO SUB the routine, for example:

 100 PRINT AT 5,10;"ENTER YOUR NAME": GO SUB 9000



The resultant entry will be returned in variable i$. The variable z$

is used by the routine to act as a temporary input string, the DELETE

key will delete a character and the ENTER key terminates the input. A

nice bit of well error trapped BASIC.



And so once again we reach the end of another collection of small, but

beautifully formed, programs. All that remains is to nominate our

Short Cut of the month. The prize goes to Mr. Neill for his Mirror program.