Projects

Abstract

• I Use your Acorn Electron to draw a digital clock. Produce the special large characters for the digits and use a colon to separate them. Your clock can be made to keep correct time by using the internal clock of the Electron (see the User Guide)

• II Make a program that tests the Morse Code proficiency of the user. The data for the program will be a paragraph of text, which the Electron should translate into Morse and then print out by means of dots and dashes using the user-defined block graphic characters. It can also use SOUND to simulate the sound of Morse. Your program should have a variable rate of production of the code so that the speed of the test increases as the user gets more proficient

• III Draw a set of International Road Signs. Your program should draw the background of the figures, such as red triangles, and then use your own special routines or the programs of chapters 5 and 6 to finish off the foreground

• IV Construct crossword puzzles on your television set. Each square of the puzzle should be 2 by 2 character blocks. The four blocks will either be black (in which case nothing goes in the square), or white with the bottom left-hand corner holding the letter of a solution, and either the top two characters holding the clue numbers (if any) or the top left character holding two ‘thin’ digits. This allows space for a 16 by 16 puzzle. You also have to place the clues on the screen, and these can be printed on request on the remaining area of the screen. Solutions to the puzzle can be added by a ‘cursor’ method or by having a special input code, such as letter ‘A’ (across) or ‘D’ (down) followed by the number of the clue, followed by your solution

• V Write programs or use the character generator and the diagram routines (chapters 5 and 6) to produce the flags of all nations. You can draw company logos, or even design new ones. Use the techniques in chapter 14 for accessing screen memory locations to add an extra option to the