Owners of Memotech MTX micros may have discovered that there is a bug in the Basic concerned with the editing of DATA statements. Basic syntax dictates that a space be left between the keyword DATA and the first data item. Unfortunately, after typing such a line into the Memotech, the Editor kindly inserts another space after the DATA keyword. This does not matter if the data items are numeric, but if the first time to be read is a string then the additional space character will be read as the first character of the string.

The problem is compounded by the fact that subsequent edits will lead to more spaces being inserted in front of the first data item.

The solution is to use the Memotech's shorthand version of the DATA keyword D., leaving no spaces between this and the first data item:

100 D.string1,string2,string3

When a line is typed in this way, D. will be expanded to DATA and a space inserted as usual, but now this space will not be read as part of the first item. To prevent the addition of further spaces, the line must be changed back to the D. form if it is subsequently edited.

Steve Benner
Caton, Lancs.