Saving a program to nano peb

[James app-2008]

Hello

 

i recently got out my ti99/4a. I have a nano peb sd card reader. 
 

i bassically am fooling around with writing computer music. And i would like a way to save files so i can go back and work on them and to have a way to store my songs. 
 

awhile back i tried posting on these forums and ran into a lot of problems. 
 

one thing i think i remeber if i want to have variables like lets say a=500 for note durations. That i need to somehow link a data file to my program?

 

anyway i have my ti up and running and would love to be able to learn how to save store and retrieve my programs. Id also like to learn to be able to access the file system on the ti99/4a? 
 

so any help would be appreciated. Also i dont know if there is a good book someone could recommend for a newbie with some basic info on the operating system 

 

btw i find the ti99/4a not that intuitive. It doesent make any sense to me lol

[James app-2008]

Hello

 

i recently got out my ti99/4a. I have a nano peb sd card reader. 
 

i bassically am fooling around with writing computer music. And i would like a way to save files so i can go back and work on them and to have a way to store my songs. 
 

awhile back i tried posting on these forums and ran into a lot of problems. 
 

one thing i think i remeber if i want to have variables like lets say a=500 for note durations. That i need to somehow link a data file to my program?

 

anyway i have my ti up and running and would love to be able to learn how to save store and retrieve my programs. Id also like to learn to be able to access the file system on the ti99/4a? 
 

so any help would be appreciated. Also i dont know if there is a good book someone could recommend for a newbie with some basic info on the operating system 

 

btw i find the ti99/4a not that intuitive. It doesent make any sense to me lol

[WhataKowinkydink]

Looks like your post was double posted - so I'm replying to the first one. 

 

Suppose you named your BASIC program "MUSIC":

SAVE "DISK1.MUSIC"

to save your program to disk 1 (DSK1.-DSK3. are your options)

OLD "DSK1.MUSIC"

to load your program from disk.

[+arcadeshopper]

https://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets and manuals/99-4A Computer/userrefguide.pdf

 

nanopeb is not intuitive.. but basically you mount a disk in a drive number and then use it as any other device on the TI.. SAVE DSK1.TEST saves a file on disk 1..called test..  OLD DSK1.TEST loads that file from the disk

nanopeb.com has the manual for it if you need it.. 

 

https://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets and manuals/Hardware/Texas Instruments/PHP1240 Disk Controller Card/ti floppy controller card manual.pdf  

disk controller manual with how to use disks in it

 

 

 

[pixelpedant]

3 hours ago, James app-2008 said:

i bassically am fooling around with writing computer music. And i would like a way to save files so i can go back and work on them and to have a way to store my songs.

Yes, a NanoPEB would let you do this, by providing disks on which you can save files, as arcadeshopper has described. 

 

Quote

That i need to somehow link a data file to my program?

You don't need disks to experiment with music.  You can just save programs you make there if you want. 

 

But if you just want to play around at making music, a disk isn't necessary.

 

Even very large, complex music programs will fit easily enough in available memory (such that loading data from disk won't be required). 

 

A disk is just somewhere to save them for later when you want to turn off the machine. 

 

Experimenting with music is just about the easiest thing to do on the TI-99/4A. 

 

Just select BASIC (option 1 at boot). 

 

Then type CALL SOUND(duration in milliseconds,pitch in hertz,attenuation of 0-30 where 0 is loudest and 30 is silent).

 

And you've got a sound. 

 

CALL SOUND(1000,330,0) = play 1 second at 330Hz at maximum loudness. 

 

Further details are available in TI BASIC and Extended BASIC documentation:

 

https://pixelpedant.com/files/original/da4f6f003b2ec0a54c57a1ea586f2eaf.pdf

 

 

[James app-2008]

Im not at my computer right now. But from what i remeber related to what im askkng. 
 

if i use variables in a music program like lets say a=500 for a note duration. 
 

i think i can’t just type them in and save the file. Because they get re-set to zero when i try to reload the file?

 

i think i was told i need to somehow link a data file with the variables to the main program? 
 

not really sure how to do this but id love to use variables in my music programs? 
 

any thoughts on how to do this?

[+mizapf]

Do you have some experience with BASIC programming (programming language "BASIC")?

 

I'm not sure whether I understood your questions.

 

When you assign a value to a variable on a command line, the value will not be saved on a file. Instead, you have to write a BASIC program. When you run the program, the variables get their values as specified in the program. In TI BASIC, adding a line to a program means you have to add a line number before the command.

 

100 A=500
110 PRINT "THE VALUE OF A IS "; A
120 END

 

The assignment is now part of the program. You can save this file and load it again later.

[James app-2008]

But if i want to use variables in my programs i was told i have to link them to a data file. 
 

and then in the main program i load them somehow from the data file? 
 

im not at my computer tomorrow im going to do some reading im sure ill have questions.

 

but if someone could explain how to use variables in a ti program that would be great since i uses them when writing my music programs? 
 

do i have to have a seperate file to store my variables. Thats what i was told then in my main program i load them somehow at the beginning of my main program so i have access to them?

[James app-2008]

So lets say i have a simple program:

 

10 a=500

20 call sound(a,440,6)

30 end

 

if i saved this file to disk i could load it and run it and it would play the note as specified? 
 

i was told if i went to reload the program the variables would be reset to zero?

[+arcadeshopper]

6 minutes ago, James app-2008 said:

So lets say i have a simple program:

 

10 a=500

20 call sound(a,440,6)

30 end

 

if i saved this file to disk i could load it and run it and it would play the note as specified? 
 

i was told if i went to reload the program the variables would be reset to zero?

yes..

whoever told you that seems to be misinformed at best

when you set a variable in your program it sets it at run time.. 

[pixelpedant]

Building on mizapf's question, I think perhaps it would be a good idea to start with a book like Easy Programming on the TI-99/4A, which goes over all the fundamentals. 

 

If you're not used to microcomputers of this era and category, there's a *lot* that's just going to be pretty unintuitive, here. 

 

Everything from which key combinations to use to do different things, to how different kinds of statement are structured, in BASIC. 

 

 

There are plenty of books on this subject, but that's one I think is likely to be good for someone who's largely unfamiliar with this kind of computer and its conventions. 

 

It does have a section on sound, when you're ready for that. 

 

[+Lee Stewart]

Duplicate post.

[+Lee Stewart]

From what you have said, you are running the TI-99/4A with a nanoPEB attached and no cartridge in the cartridge slot, which means you have only TI Basic for programming. You should first review New to the group? TI-99/4A FAQ, Hardware and software resources READ FIRST! and then review

• The TI-99/4A User’s Reference Guide that should have come with the computer. 
• The Disk Drive Manual will help with disk file commands.
• The nanoPEB Manual will help with “disk” I/O for the nanoPEB volumes.

After your review of the above, there is a lot of help here for specific issues. You just need to post as much information as possible, including program source, so we can help you.

 

[Some of this post may be redundant (I first posted it in your duplicate post), but, as you can see, you are not alone!]

 

...lee

[Bill R Sullivan]

What Lee Stewart said.  Trust me it's very straight forward.  You'll be glad when you do!

 

RetroBill (FDOS)

[Ed in SoDak]

If you have a portable cassette recorder and the cable to connect it to the TI, that's another way to save a program and get it back into memory. SAVE CS1 and OLD CS1 are the commands.

 

You can also play downloaded MP3 files on your PC or phone to load in the same way as a cassette. Main thing is to make sure the playback volume is adequate. Once loaded, you can save those to your own cassette or into the nanoPEB.

 

Here in the Atari Age forums, at the top right is a search box that will give results for most anything TI. Or just ask!

 

A good way to learn programming is to look at listings of programs that do similar things.

 

Link to TI's User Reference book: https://archive.org/details/tibook_users-reference-guide

 

Link to a TI Beginner's BASIC book:  https://archive.org/details/tibook_beginners-basic

 

Another way to get your feet wet is to get one of the excellent TI emulators. I use Classic99, there's several others, all mentioned in the FAQs.