IBM Ever Onward (EVRONUNC.BAS, EVRONWRD.BAS) - Screen problems; Crashes while playing music

[Kenneth Wayne Boyd]

First, thanks for creating this great program! I've been "re-discovering" some of the first music created with the BASIC PLAY string. According to the preface remarks in this program, "This arrangement for IBM PC was done by W. E. Schmitt, IBM Charlotte 1982; tie 8-474-3511." and is the music and words to "Ever Onward, The IBM Rally Song."

I've had a few different errors in trying to execute these files (one is text, the other is numbers. When "loaded" they seem to be the same program.

I'm running PC-Basic on a Lenovo X220, 16GB memory, Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1.

Error #1. The screen seems to be trying to display the lyrics, but the background is white with no visible letters.
The song music played through to the end. (line 230 and 250 are the culprit, and I removed them for some experiments below, that still resulted in a crash.)

Error #2. A windows window pops up "pcbasic.exe | pcbasic.exe has stopped working | A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available. | [Close Program]" This seems to be potentially music related... various restarts and there are crashes at different times when displaying lyric lines and playing the music.

Below is the "cut and paste" source of the text version "EVRONWRD.BAS"

At least some of the problem seems to be with the program "assuming" something about the SCREEN state.
I'm not sure what SCREEN setting would be valid for lines
"230 COLOR 16, 7" - Black blinking letters on white background.. OK
"250 COLOR 7,7" - White on White... ummm, not sure why this worked, from green screen days?

At any rate.... on to program crashes...

After
SCREEN 0,0,0
COLOR 15, 0
230
250
RUN
The music played for 3 lines
There's a feeling ev'ry where of bigger things in store --
Of new horizons coming into view.
Our aim is clear To make each year exceed the one before
THEN.... "pcbasic.exe has stopped working"....

Several other restarts... sometimes music finishes, sometimes it crashes.

If I can provide any additional information, please let me know.exit

10 REM Ever Onward
20 '
30 ' The following was taken from the inside cover of the sheet music for
40 ' Ever Onward, The IBM Rally Song.
50 '
60 ' "The IBM rally song, Ever Onward, was written in 1931 by IBMer Fred
70 ' Tappe. This rousing number was only one of many songs written and sung
80 ' by the company's marketing representatives, students, managers and
90 ' employees whenever they gatehered for group meetings.
100 '
110 ' "During the 50's and 60's, changing social emphasis precipitated a
120 ' decline in group singing. The lyrics were rewritten in 1958 and sung
130 ' mainly by marketing students in IBM schools. But the company sing-along
140 ' has continued its steady decline; today the strains of Ever Onward
150 ' echo only on old film soundtracks in the company's archives and in the
160 ' memories of longtime IBMers."
170 '
180 ' This arrangement for IBM PC was done by W. E. Schmitt, IBM Charlotte 1982; tie 8-474-3511.
190 '
200 CLS
210 KEY OFF
220 PRINT SPC(25);
230 COLOR 16,7
240 PRINT "EVER ONWARD"
250 COLOR 7,7
260 PRINT
270 PRINT SPC(10);"The IBM Rally song, written by Fred Tappe"
280 PRINT SPC(10);"Arranged for IBM PC by W. E. Schmitt"
290 PRINT SPC(29);" IBM Charlotte"
300 PRINT
310 WORDS1$="There's a feeling ev'ry where of bigger things in store --"
320 WORDS2$="Of new horizons coming into view."
330 LINE1$="o3mnt160l4bb8o4dd8o3gg8bb8ee8ee8mle."
340 LINE2$="mnee8f#e8de8f#g8aa#8mlb.b.mnb."
350 WORDS3$="Our aim is clear To make each year exceed the one before"
360 WORDS4$="Staying in the lead in ev'rything we do."
370 LINE3$="d.bb8o4dd8o3gg8bb8ee8ee8mle."
380 LINE4$="mnef8f#e8de8f#g8ab8mlg.g.g.mng"
390 WORDS5$="The will to win is built right in It will not be denied."
400 WORDS6$="And we will go ahead we know by working side by side."
410 LINE5$="g8f#f#8aa8o4dd8o3aa8f#f#8aa8o4mld.mnd"
420 LINE6$="o4d8dd8dd8dd8dd8dc8o3af#8d2."
430 WORDS7$="Ever Onward, Ever Onward"
440 LINE7$="o3mnt160l4d.e.f#.g.f#.g.g#.a."
450 WORDS8$="That's the spirit that has brought us fame -------"
460 LINE8$="ga8bg8ab8ag8e.mle.mne"
470 WORDS9$="We're big but bigger we will be"
480 LINE9$="e8d#e8gf#8f#f8f#."
490 WORDSA$="We can't fail for all can see"
500 LINEA$="ff#8ag8gf#8g."
510 WORDSB$="That to serve humanity has been our aim -----"
520 LINEB$="f#g8ba8ag#8ae8f#g8a.mla.mna"
530 WORDSC$="Our products now are known ----- in ev'ry zone ----"
540 LINEC$="d8c#d8g.g.mlg.mngd8e.f.mlg.mng"
550 WORDSD$="Our reputation sparkles like a gem -------"
560 LINED$="g#8aa8ab8o4c#c#8o3ba8o4d1"
570 WORDSE$="We've fought our way thru and new "
580 LINEE$="c8o3af#8d.e.f#.g."
590 WORDSF$="Fields we're sure to conquer too"
600 LINEF$="f#f#8gg8g#g#8a8"
610 WORDSG$="For the Ever Onward I B M --------"
620 LINEG$="g#8a8bo4c8de8o3b.a.g1p2"
630 PRINT WORDS1$: PLAY LINE1$
640 PRINT WORDS2$: PLAY LINE2$
650 PRINT WORDS3$: PLAY LINE3$
660 PRINT WORDS4$: PLAY LINE4$
670 PRINT WORDS5$: PLAY LINE5$
680 PRINT WORDS6$: PLAY LINE6$
690 PRINT WORDS7$: PLAY LINE7$
700 PRINT WORDS8$: PLAY LINE8$
710 PRINT WORDS9$: PLAY LINE9$
720 PRINT WORDSA$: PLAY LINEA$
730 PRINT WORDSB$: PLAY LINEB$
740 PRINT WORDSC$: PLAY LINEC$
750 PRINT WORDSD$: PLAY LINED$
760 PRINT WORDSE$: PLAY LINEE$
770 PRINT WORDSF$: PLAY LINEF$
780 PRINT WORDSG$: PLAY LINEG$
790 END


[Rob Hagemans]

Hi, thanks for the report!

issue #1) The program EVRONWRD.BAS is meant to run on a monochrome (MDA) IBM PC, where COLOR 7,7 gives low-intensity green on black. You can run it as is on PC-BASIC if you set the option preset=mda in PCBASIC.INI. By default, PC-BASIC will emulate a VGA adapter for which COLOR 7,7 gives white on white, which explains why the text is not visible.

issue #2) I've had reports before of crashes on Windows 7 when sound is used. Unfortunately I can't reproduce them on my setups - the attached program runs fine for me without any crash on Windows 7. As a result I don't know what causes the problem on machines like yours.

It's been suggested that it may have something to do with certain anti-virus or security software - which anti-virus do you use?

Could you try temporarily switching to another anti-virus (I'm currently using MS Security Essentials) to see if it still crashes? If it doesn't, then at least we know something more about this problem...

Thanks
Rob

[Kenneth Wayne Boyd]

Thanks for the quick response.
PC-BASIC is amazing!

Windows 7 Professional has some issues around permissions that might be associated with the crashes. I will experiment and see if I can narrow down the conditions associated with crashes.

I've been starting it from a command window running as "Administrator" today, and haven't had any crashes. ummm.

Thanks again!
Ken

[Rob Hagemans]

Thanks Ken!

Interesting idea to check permissioning issues - that's another moving part I had not considered. Let me know if you find out more about the crashes!

Rob

[Anonymous]

Here are a few more data points relating to the couple of hypothesis considered:
1. The seemingly random crashes are related to anti-virus.
* I'm running Norton Internet Security. I couldnt find a "version number" but it's current
* I haven't tried turning it off and seeing if I can recreate the crash... I'll give it a shot when I get a chance. I was hoping I could find a sequence that created the crash on demand before I tried, but we'll see.
* I won't be able to install a different Firewall and/or virus protection program.
2. The seemingly random crashes are related to permissions problems.
* Since I've run into some weird permissions issues in my 6 years of using this laptop (Wow! It's getting old!) I'm inclined to think it's something with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

A few more data points relating to hypothesis 2.

• I recently re-installed XAMPP and remember in the process it saying someting about "This install will place an XAMPP folder in the root directory... don't change it or you might have permissions problems." or something like that... I haven't re-located the warning that I remember.
• See this discussion about Windows 7 permissions problems:
  • http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/316306-administrator-doesnt-have-permission-save-files-some-places.html
• Here are my permissions settings for the C:\Program Files (x86)\PC-BASIC folder:
  PC-BASIC
  Type: File Folder
  Attributes: Read-only (Only applies to files in folder)

Group or user names:
CREATOR OWNER
SYSTEM
Administrators (Ken-THINK)\Administrators)
Users (Ken-THINK\Users)
Trusted Installer

Since the two ways I've run it have been Ken-Think as Administrator and as User, here are the details for those:

Administrators (Ken-THINK\Administrators)
Full Control - Allow
Modify - Allow
Read & execute - Allow
List folder contents - Allow
Read - Allow
Write - Allow

Users (Ken-THINK\Users)
Full Control - Neither Allow or Deny is selected
Modify - Neither Allow or Deny is selected
Read & execute - Allow
List folder contents - Allow
Read - Allow
Write - Neither Allow or Deny is selected

For comparison, the permissions for the "C:\xampp" folder are identical to be above for (Ken-THINK\Administrators) and (Ken-THINK\Users), however the lis of Groups or user names is different:

Group or user names:
Authenticaded Users
SYSTEM
Administrators (Ken-THINK\Administrators)
Users (Ken-THINK\Users)

Thanks,
Ken

[Rob Hagemans]

Hi Ken, thanks for the details! The earlier reports of audio crashes were indeed also Windows 7 64-bit. However, on my Win 7 64-bit setup it does not crash, so it varies from one setup to another. I'm afraid I'm not enough of a Windows expert to be able to make much of the various permissioning settings.

Another hypothesis is that it's a driver or library issue (PC-BASIC uses Pygame for audio, which is based on SDL1.2), but that would be very hard to debug.