Headerless files Ian Harris, Old Windsor, Berkshire. When you use the ordinary Spectrum SAVE and LOAD commands, the computer normally deals with the tape file in two parts. The first is the header which contains information about the start address and the length and name of the file. The second is the actual block of code to be saved/ loaded. This short machine code program enables the user to bypass the header, and save or load the block of code on its own. This is achieved by typing in one of the two new commands, the format of which is as follows. To save a headerless file, type: *SAVE start,length To load a headerless file, type: *LOAD start,length where "start" is the address at which the file is to begin, e.g. 16384 - the start of the screen - and "length" is the number of bytes that are to be saved/loaded, e.g. 6192 - the length of a screen. Note that the program will not load the actual header of a file; only the code block after it. You can also load a specified amount of a file, e.g. the first third of a screen picture. To do this, take any screen picture file, and type: *LOAD 16384,2048 16384 is the start of the screen; 2048 is the number of bytes in the first third of the screen. The program will stop loading part way through the tape file, i.e., when 2048 bytes have been loaded. If you don't know the length of a headerless file, just set the length equal to 65535; this will load in every- thing, no matter what length. To initialise the routine, type: RANDOMIZE USR 65356 *SAVE and *LOAD should now be accepted. If for any reason the Spectrum fails to accept the commands but you know that they work correctly, this is probably due to a CLEAR com- mand or RUN command being executed; then just reinitialise the routine using the USR statement as above. [But note that, unusually for such extended commands, these _must_ be typed in capitals. Typing *Load instead of *LOAD would also result in the computer not recognising the command.] If you wish to use the commands in a program, make sure that RANDOMIZE USR 65356 is the first line of your routine.