QB_LIST.EXE

QB_LIST.EXE is a utility program intended to list QuickBASIC or QBASIC
programs better than their respective editors list them.

In my view,there are three serious shortcomings in the QB editors.
One, there's not enough left margin.  If you keep your listings in a three ring
notebook, there's a good chance you've punched holes in part of your code.
Two, the editor prints right over the perforations in fanfold paper.
Three, if you have a long line of code, the editor "wraps" the line whenever
the right margin is reached, and goes all the way to the left margin, regardless
of any indentation you may have made in the code.

QB_LIST fixes these three problems, and preserves the original "look" of
your code.  We gain room by printing at 12 characters per inch, so there's
room for a left margin.  We print a header on each page, showing filename,
date and time listed, and a page count for the listing.  Only 55 lines of
code are printed on a page in addition to the header, so there is a 5 line
bottom margin.  Long lines are "folded" so that a blank space occurs at the
right hand end of the line.  The only exception, of course, is a segment
that contains no spaces.  This is usually a row of asterisks or equals signs
stretching all across the page, used for better legibility of the code.
Thus, in almost all cases, the line is not broken in the middle of an
identifier.  An i. d. mark is placed at the left hand end of the line segment.
When listed, a long line looks like this:

                Ú Beginning of a long line....
                ³ Middle of a long line....
                À End of a long line.

This is not a "prettyprint" program that indents code for you.  Ugly code
in equals ugly code out, but a least it's got white space all around.

I use a Panasonic printer in an IBM Proprinter emulation mode, so you may
need to modify the printer control strings in the source code to set your
printer to 12 cpi. and to reset to 10 cpi.

To use QB_LIST.EXE, type QB_LIST filespec <Enter>, where filespec is the
path plus filename of the file to be listed.  If the file to be listed
is in the current directory, you can omit the path.  The file to be listed
must be in ASCII format.  QBASIC source files are already in ASCII format,
QuickBASIC files may be in a special format.  Check this by loading the
file while QuickBASIC is running, then use Alt - F - A (three separate
keystrokes), to reach a dialog box.  The file format is noted on the right
side of the dialog box,  Change to ASCII format, if necessary, before
using QB_LIST.

Feel free to use QB_LIST.  There is no registration fee.  Although I have
tested the code for several days, and I think I've gotten all the bugs,
you should regard the program as a beta test item.  I'd like to hear from
those of you who have tried the program.

I'm Don West; 4655 - 90th Avenue S.E.; Mercer Island, WA 98040-4431;
(206) 232-6348.  My Compuserve I.D. number is 71051,2117.  However, don't
hold your breath on Compuserve mail, I am a very infrequent user.