#1-3 01 января 1987

Autochar instruction

I N S T R U C T I O N S 
 You have probably  come across  many different  character sets  for your Spectrum but they all  take a little bit of effort to  include  in your  own programs  and  the extra  time  taken to  load  the code  whether from a  cassette or a microdrive tends  to put one off bothering. What  is needed is a nice, standard,  clear font for general use but  'built in' to the BASIC and so  without the hassle. A font you  can easily include in all your  programs almost  without  even  thinking  about it.
 
AUTOCHARS is an alternate set  of characters that  is clearer  than the normal Sinclair font.  However, it has the additional  quality of being generated  by  a small  machine  code routine  in a REM statement in BASIC at   9500 so  it can easily be  merged into your own  programs  and called into service with a  GO SUB. Note that AUTOCHARS is  not a  designed character set  but is automatically  made  by  a short routine that uses less  memory.

To switch back to the Sinclair  characters  use POKE 23606,0 : POKE 23607,60  before printing  your text.
 You can save a back up of this  master copy by pressing 'S' at  the AUTOCHARS menu but to  use  the program you need to save a  working copy (see menu)  which  consists of just one line:9500  which you can then  just’ in, once and for all, into the  program of your choice. As supplied,AUTOCHARS will put  the character set at 64000 but  you can easily choose where to  put the  code by  altering the  number just  after the FIRST  STOP statement in  9500.  Ignore the warning buzz or use  POKE 23608,0 to silence it. No  harm  will be done (unless you  edit along to the code itself)