Tick-Tock-Clock

TICK-TOCK CLOCK


by Peter Dackombe


from Your Sinclair #27 (March 1988)


[files TICKTOCK.*]





Ever lost track of time while slaving over a hot Speccy, typing in


unfolding pages of endless hex? Missed a very important rendezvous with


your girlfriend because you have no idea of the time when you were


programming? If so then this program, from ol' Peter Dackombe, is for


you. Type it in, RUN it, and an interrupt driven clock will appear in


the top right-hand corner of the screen that'll give you the current


time to the nearest second. Gosh! And what's more you can still type in


hex, Basic or whatever with the clock running at the same time!





Please Interrupt





Interrupts are specialised instructions that, when used correctly, can


enable you to run two programs simultaneously. What you see is actually


an illusion; the computer is just jumping between the two routines every


50th of a second, so it only seems like the two are running together.


Now you know.





Method





Nothing could be simpler. All you need to do is type in the hex loader


(or load it in if you've got it on tape) and use it to enter the machine


code hex. Then, to get the clock ticking, just:





POKE 64026, seconds


POKE 64027, minutes


POKE 64028, hours (1-12)


POKE 64029, 0 if AM or 1 if PM





Done that? Now type in RANDOMIZE USR 64001 to start the clock. Then,


hours later, when it comes to beddy-byes or rendezvous time just type in


RANDOMIZE USR 64008 to stop time.