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bastools/reference

Notes on code "proofers"

Please correct or add to this information!

Some summary notes and observations on the Apple II code checking tools.

Applesoft

Includes REM contents Includes spaces Control Chars? Other? Case-sensitive? Operation Grouping(s) Checksum Size Program Total
Compute! Automatic Proofreader Yes No CTRL+D N/A Yes Input Buffer Line 1 byte No
Nibble Checkit No In strings In Strings "?" Yes Input Buffer Line, Program 1 byte (line)
2 bytes (program)
Yes, on line numbers
Nibble Apple Checker Yes No CTRL+D N/A Yes Program Program 1 byte (2 bytes length) Yes, checksum and length calculation
MicroSPARC Key Perfect 2 Yes Yes All N/A Yes Program Groups of 10 lines,
Program
Max 3 bytes Yes, byte count
MicroSPARC Key Perfect 4 Yes No CTRL+D N/A Yes Program Groups of 10 lines,
Program
Max 3 bytes Yes, byte count
MicroSPARC Key Perfect 5 No No CTRL+D N/A No Program Groups of 10 lines,
Program
4 bytes Yes
  • Includes REM contents - most checksum algorithms includes the REM as well as the contents of the REM statement; some only include the REM itself.
  • Includes spaces - indicates if whitespace is important.
  • Control Chars? - indicates if any control characters are included in the checksum.
  • Other? - Checkit replaces "?" with "PRINT" to standardize the shortcut for the PRINT statement. The catch is that it ignores quotes. So any "?" is replaced with "PRINT" for the checksum algorithm.
  • Case-sensitive? - is "A" and "a" handled differently?
  • Operation - if "Input Buffer" is specified, the checksums are displayed after a line of code has been entered; otherwise, the program must be completed and saved before running checksum.
  • Groupings - what, if any, groupings apply.

Binary

Includes spaces Other?
Compute! Automatic Proofreader
Nibble Checkit Yes Yes
Nibble Apple Checker No N/A
MicroSPARC Key Perfect 2 No N/A
MicroSPARC Key Perfect 4
MicroSPARC Key Perfect 5
  • Includes spaces - indicates if spaces are important. For instance, Nibble Checkit uses the input buffer and does not ignore spaces. Thus, if extra spaces are includes like "0300:A900", the checksum will be off.
  • Other? - Checkit does the program total against the program bytes, not the entered text. Only the line checksum uses the input buffer.

References