★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ CHEAPWORD: Word Processing on the cheap ★ |
CPC Spelling Tutor (The Amstrad User) | Applications Bureautique |
Although designed for children, this spelling tutor from David Rich could well find a use by more mature readers. I was interested to read your reviewers introductory comments on spelling programs. (TAU 23, MAY 1987) The idea of flashing a word on the screen "Obviously doesn't work because you've got the answer already" shouldn't be taken for granted. It really doesn matter how often you have seen a word, or even how recently... you still may not be able to spell it correctly. In fact you may not even realise that you have got it wrong. We tend to read words and sentences for their MEANING rather than their spelling; the individual letters which make up the word often don't register at all. The first program I ever wrote (as opposed to copied or adapted) was a spelling tutor for my son. Daniel was about 5 years old, and going well at school except for his spelling. Unfortunately (?) his Little Sister got hold of the program before he did and had the cheek to learn all of his words! A little sister, a nose out of joint and a compuler-tutor make learning your spelling quota much easier! I can't provide the little sister or the bruised ego, but the following program contains a years spelling for vcar six students. The words are held in data lists at the start of the program. Each data statement holds 20 words (because each school list contains 20 words...) and it is a simple matter to substitute and words for the ones supplied -just type them in place of the ones al ready there, making sure that each line holds just 20 words and no additional spaces. The program expects lower case letters: that lets it check proper nouns for capital letters. Type in upper case and it will treat the answer as wrong, even if it isn't. The order of the lists is the order in which they would be presented as the school year progressed. I am not sure if that means that later lists are harder than earlier ones... it depends on the individual. INPUTing your choice RESTORES the data pointer to the line holding thai particular list (lines 950-1110). Selecting Hard, Medium or Easy when prompted at lino 850 only changes the value of the timer in line 560. This in turn' decides how long the word stays on the screen. Making a spelling mistake (or a typing error) loses you a point. It also assigns the word as an elemcnt in the array CROSS$(n) (line 620). Getting the same word wrong three times transfers control to the subroutine at line 1210 which prints the word out letter by letter. When the twenty words have been attempted, lines 740-770 provide a score (the number correct - number of errors) and any mis-spelt words are listed by the loop commencing at 760. The loop counter is fixed at twenty... hopefully there won t be twenty mistakes, so line 770 only prints CROSS$(n) if it is a null string (ie. it only prints words, not blanks). That's all there is to it. You can add sounds, change screen colours, add graphics, give all sorts of "reinforcer' for right answers if you like... there is plenty of memory available since the program is only 120 lines REMs and all: barely 5Kb long. My original attempt 5 years ago held about a months of words and ran to 6kb. TAU
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