With reference to John Lettice's program (issue 76) I'd like to point out that printing on the bottom two lines of the Spectrum can be both fast and easy.

The key is held in the system variable DF SZ which contains the number of lines in the lower screen. This is normally set at 2, but POKEing 23659 changes this. Setting DF SZ to 0 enables printing on the bottom two lines but must be reset to 2 before exiting the program or an input or the Spectrum will crash.

The following listing demonstrates:

10 BORDER 4
20 POKE 23659,0
30 FOR i=1 TO 24
40 PRINT "0000000000000000000000000000000000"
50 NEXTi
60 PAUSE 0
70 POKE 23659,2

Andy Goodsell
Kenley, Surrey

Yes, there are a number of quick ways to produce printing on the bottom two lines of the screen - the one you propose is in the manual. In general you must be careful, or you'll crash the Spectrum. The point of POKEing directly to the screen is first that it is a system that allows you to print anywhere on the Spectrum's screen, and second that it promotes understanding of the way the Spectrum's screen operates. - Ed