SIGNS 

As structured, SIGNS prints a string of seven letters in large format -  10
x 7 normal characters.  Each string of seven letters is a total of 82  x  7
characters in size.  This includes two spaces between each letter, but does
not include two line feeds between each string.  "stat lst:  =  tty:"  will
cause the letters to be printed on the console; expect the last two columns
of the last letter to wrap(or truncate, depending on the  console).    Size
can be trimmed by shortening the arrays to 6 letters,  or  by  cutting  the
space between letters to 1.  

The UCASE function traps all illegal letters, and  turns  lower  case  into
upper.  As presently written,  only  upper  case  letters  and  blanks  are
formatted.  

Since all BASIC language variables are legal in Pascal, the names were  not
changed.  

Filling the Z array presented a problem.  Initially I had planned to do  it
thus:  
        mult := 1;      {declared as integer} 
        for a := 5 downto 1 do 
        begin 
                z[a] := mult; 
                mult := mult * 10; 
        end; 
This resulted in a run-time multiplication  error.    I've  brought  it  to
Ithaca's attention.  In the meantime, the brute force method works, tho  it
certainly is not as elegant.  

The most difficult part of converting this program from BASIC  was  filling
the array containing the character font -- L.  In BASIC this is done within
the program using a series of DATA statements; for which there is no analog
in Pascal.  Here is how the font is stored, should you wish to alter or add
to it.  Each line in  the  "font.dat"  file  consists  of  a  string  of  8
characters:  
Char    ASCII   (val-64)        Binary 
_       95      31              11111 
P       80      16              10000 
P       80      16              10000 
^       94      30              11110 
P       80      16              10000 
P       80      16              10000 
P       80      16              10000 
f -- label, not used by the program 
The above is  the  representation  of  the  letter  "F".    Only  printable
characters can be used as part of  the  font  string,  as  my  text  editor
filters the control characters(for starters).  For that reason, the program
uses the upper case series and converts to the  numbers  needed  using  the
(val-64) function.  If SIGNS is used as a subroutine  in  another  program,
suggest that array L be declared globally.  Also remove procedure  SETARRAY
from the nest and make  it  part  of  program  initialization.    That  way
"font.dat" will only be called once.  

Improvements and comments welcome:  
Rex A Buddenberg 
1910 Ash Street 
North Bend, Or 97459 
h)503/756-2180 

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