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New DotBASIC Project - Browzit

Alan

Alan

New member
Loadstar OG
Years ago, I used to DotBASIC to create a disk browser program called NAV.
I recently decided to start from scratch and write a new program that better suits my hardware and workflow now.
Here are a few screenshots of my progress:

1.png
Here's the interface. Click the drive you want to browse. Directories are sorted alphabetically by default. Also supports the SoftIEC drive on the "Ultimate" Commodore devices (drive 12 in the screenshot).


2.png
There's a drop down menu to access the other features. Menu choices vary depending on the type of drive in use.


3.png
The file copier relies on JiffyDOS's copying routines. Everything else works on a stock machine.
DotBASIC really is a flexible and cool BASIC extension. I can't thank Rev.Dave and Lee enough for creating it!
 
It is so rewarding to hear that some legacy has continued from my flobbing around with gool ol' BASIC 2.0. As I think about all this more philosophically, I can't help but feel fortunate that I was on the computer scene in that netherworld between huge, expensive machines requiring a priesthood of programmers and operators - and our current huge, expensive networks requiring a priesthood of programmers and operators.

The C64 (as well as its brothers and sisters) was a "knowable machine." (In the last 20 years, I have forgotten more than I ever knew - except a vague notion that I once did know it. Not unlike Charlie in Flowers for Algernon.) Our computer memory was so limited that we had to really think! And that was a profound challenge. BASIC 2.0 had its suckiness - so we had to improve it using 6502 ML. And 6502 ML had its own suckiness - absolute addressing, so freely relocatable code was supposed to be impossible.

Alan - your screens look great. Much better than my own attempts when I built a file controller for the Loadstar Home Tower. As I recall (reference my vanishing memory mentioned above) That I did not use JiffyDOS for the program. So I had to write an actual 1541/1581 disk access program from scratch. It was slow - but worked! In fact, after using it to copy issues of Loadstar, I was amazed by the fact that it continued to work exactly as designed. And that is what I so enjoyed about writing programs. Once something worked, it continued without failure.
 
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