Hey all,

Could someone help me with making a blinking cursor?
Thanks in advance.

Greetings, Arriopolis.

A text blinking cursor? An icon? Something like DCS's TextInput cursor? (which you would just use DCS utilities for) The basic idea is to have a variable that says whether the cursor is on or off, and remember where to place it and how to handle it "blinking". I could work up some code if you want

I'd just like to have the blinking cursor which you find on the homescreen when you make calculations.
I know it's just the same as the one in Doors CS, but I simply don't want to use it.... yet, partly to just get some more coding experience, but mainly because I want to spread my programs over the school, without having to explain everyone how to install DCS and such.

You could:

Code:

that will give you a blinking cursor.

I know...
But that won't help me when I'm programming in ASM:P.

Ohh asm, sorry thought you were programming basic.

Yes, I am making a similar input command as the basic one...
At least I'm trying to. But another that I can't use DCS is that I want it to work in small screen...
I am first making it in the large font though. And therefore, I need to have a cursor, to indicate where the cursor is currently.
I saw some info in AsmIn28Days, Day 27, but it's all abracadabra for me.

The way I handle blinking cursors is to have a general input loop. Every iteration of this loop increments a variable taken mod N. Every time the variable is 0, the cursor sprite is XORed onto the screen. Adjusting the value of N gives you your timing.

I could explain in depth if you didn't understand Qwert.55, arriopolis, if you ask.

OK, but the ASMin28Days said you had to fool around with the CurOn flag, and the CurTime variables...
I think I'm gonna abandone them and try something myself as you say, unless someone says how to fix it.
Thanks qwerty.

Don't abandon it stick with it and you will learn it.

But I might abandon it temporarely.

Okay, I abandoned z80 programming temporarily to become a axe guiness.

What is axe?^^

You don't know Axe??? Well it is a parser made by Kevin Horowitz, that somewhat uses basic, but has all the qualities of asm, and as fast, while it being alot easier to learn than z80/asm languages, I am learning very well, and I love it more than asm, but don't get me wrong asm is fun, but hard.
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/146/146335.html

I'd strongly recommend that you stick with ASM; in my opinion it's just as easy to learn, and it is of course more powerful. I don't understand your hesitation to use Doors CS, since everyone in your school should be using it anyway. It's more stable and more compatible than MirageOS, if that's what they're using, and with [+], [-], [1] through [6], and [CLEAR], they don't even have to use the mouse.

Kerm,
Imagin it's 5 minutes before the test starts. I'm standing there, in front of the classroom, with an endless crowd of ppl and calculators around me, trying to get my program on every calc as quick as possible. I do not have time to also transfer DCS then, let alone explaining how to use it.
This situation above might seem a little unlikely, but I really have been in such a situation multiple times.
I agree that MirageOS is unstable, that's why my programs are never compatible to MirageOS either.

Kerm, I beg to differ: Axe uses a syntax similar to Basic, and is just as powerful as ASM. but everyone's got his own opinion...

I really enjoy using axe, I might ease my way back to z80, but for now I am having fun, which is how programming should be.

I suggest going the way that you find easiest at first Kerm is a ASM-guru, so no offense, but his suggestion will obviously be to go ASM ^-^ whereas I'm somewhat of an Axe-Guru, so it would be expected that I tell you to go that way instead. But here's what I think:

Some people are just born to understand how assembly works. Unfortunately, that leaves all us non-godly-kerms out in the rain however, Axe can be used to bridge that gap -- a proficient Axe coder can get into assembly much easier than a proficient BASIC coder, that's just a highly-supported fact of life. Axe has a simple syntax, but it does have many low-level things that mimic assembly.

What I suggest is that you try to spend a little while learning assembly first -- if at first you don't succeed, spend a few months (2-3 months optimally) and then try again -- you'll understand many concepts much better

aeTIos: it's not quite as powerful as assembly -- in some cases (depending on what you're doing) it can be almost as optimized as assembly, but it doesn't have nearly as low level control as pure asm. I would compare it to C--.