EstelHV
Author: dragonet80
Category: Christmas Challenge
System: MSX (any version)
Language: BASIC (any version)
Len source code: 75 bytes for ESTELHV.BAS and 78 bytes for ESTELPK.BAS (what file ESTELHV.BAS in disk manager or in msx-dos says. In Windows ESTELHV.TXT is 100 bytes and ESTELPK.TXT is 94 bytes)
Len exe file: <# bytes>
Len code only: <# bytes> (valid for assembler only; length of executable without BASIC stub)
Instructions:
I included in the .zip file a .dsk file wich is an image of a diskette for the MSX computer. You can load it with any emulator. I used WebMSX online emulator (also tried in fMSX). After you load the .dsk image then you have to load the program:
load"estelhv.bas" (or load"estelpk.bas" the other variant)
and then clear display and run:
cls:run
Description:
The code has 2 loops and 2 position and print, one for horizontal lines and one for vertical lines. I used negative and positive interval numbers and ABS() function to alow increment and decrement of the line size so I can avoid the use of more LOCATE and PRINT instructions. I also tried with VPOKE instead of LOCATE and PRINT and it is curious because .BAS files (VPOKE variant) ocupies more space in the MSX file system but the source in .TXT format ocupies less.
That's the reason why I send you both files, I do not know wich one is better.
Comments:
I wrote all the code in one single line without spaces so the code size of the .bas file is minimized. I tried changing line number 10 by 1 but it does no effect in .BAS file, so I left it in .TXT file. I also could change PRINT by ? in .TXT file but the BASIC interpreter always expands ? to PRINT so it seems not fair to use ? in the .TXT file. This way .BAS and .TXT are exactly the same. If you need more info, please, ask me. Thank you for this challenge, it has been very entertaining.