Hello all!

From: Isaac Davis <idavis_at_comland.com>
Date: Wed Mar 19 09:31:34 1997

At 07:46 AM 3/19/97 CST, you wrote:
> My nephew owns an Atari 800XL computer, and I was wondering if anyone
>knows of any source for basic programs he could type in and learn from.
>I think the basic programs should be short and easy for a 7th grader to
>learn from. Thanks for any help. I will be writing up a mastermind program
>for him and maybe a tic-tac-toe game for him. Anyone have ideas for other
>games that can be written in BASIC and are easy to understand and short?
>Thanks in advance.
>
>--
> Douglas Zander | many things interest me, too many to list
> dzander_at_solaria.sol.net | here. if you want a profile :-) why not
> Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA | send me a letter? tell me about yourself,
> "Over-looking Lake Michigan." | I'll tell you about myself.
>
Douglas,
        There are some good programs that he can type in and learn in the
back of the basic manual. I would recommend that he get a copy of the basic
manual and there are also some good books on learning basic on the atari.
Check in the newsgroups, there are auctions going on constantly. A good
idea for a short little program would be one to create word searches, you
know the ones where you have a list of words and a block of letters, and you
have to find the words hidden in the block of letters. It was one of my
first programming projects, and it came out real nice. He could then start
modifying it to print out the answers, and also make the size of the puzzle
variable (20X20, 40X40, 20X40.....) This kind of program isn't very big to
write, and it really gives a good grasp of variables and how to manipulate
them, plus maybe a little disk io if he decides he wants to save them as
text files. Another good source of programs is old magazines. Almost all of
them had programs that you could(had to) type in, and they range from games
to utilities. Tell him good luck, and stick with it. I learned to program
on my Atari in 1983, and today I still love to program, in fact it's how I
make a living. It's really good to see these older computers still have a
purpose and a following of people that realize their worth.
Isaac Davis
idavis_at_comland.com
indavis_at_juno.com
Received on Wed Mar 19 1997 - 09:31:34 GMT