[Coco] Expanding 4K Coco Mem

[Arthur Flexser]

I agree with Robert that there's not much you can do, if the program is in
Basic, to get around the fact that it and its variables are sandwiched
between $600 and $FFF in a 4K machine.  You can make up to 200 additional
bytes available to Basic within that area by using the smallest possible
CLEAR value that will get by without generating an OS error.

Beyond that, you save a few bytes from packing as much into statement lines
as possible, avoiding spaces and comments.  There's actually around 5 or so
extra bytes that can be squeezed into each line beyond what can be typed
in, and utilities exist, or existed at one time, to squash a program into
the minimum space, combining as many statements as possible into a single
line.  Maybe one can be found online in the list database.  I think there
was one advertised in Rainbow called "The Stripper".

To minimize variable space, try reusing the same variable or array for
multiple purposes.  Or use peeks and pokes to store and retrieve
single-byte values rather than assigning a variable name.  The cassette
buffer would be available for such storage.

If part of what needs to be done could be accomplished by a ML routine,
consider that possibility rather than doing it in Basic.  To minimize
space, you could end-pack the ML routine rather than poking it in from DATA
statements.

That's about all the space-saving techniques I can think of at the moment.
Good luck!

Art

On Thu, Jan 1, 2015 at 9:43 PM, Jim Gerrie <jimgerrie at ns.sympatico.ca>
wrote:

> If Darren's suggestion is correct that it is the 256K line buffer and a
> buffer for possible cassette data file output that explains why there is
> only 2343 bytes left for a program, is there any magical set of pokes that
> would allow those buffers to be "turned off" so that the mem could be used
> by a program?  I think my Tetris just needs about 500 more bytes to fit.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>