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PREFACE
The recent popularity of the portable computer is remarkable. The implication
is that portability, providing extra versatility to the personal computer, has
made a strong appeal to computer users who place emphasis on ease of operation.
The portable computer has a typewriter-style keyboard like the one used with
an ordinary desk-top computer. It also has a display panel of moderate size.
The FP-200, on which the programs presented in this booklet run, is a portable
computer featuring low costant high performance. The advent of the FP-200
with its innovative new features has proved that portable computers have great
potential for further growth.
The greatest advantage of the FP-200 is that a simple table language, called
CETL, is supplied as a standard feature. CETL makes tabulation work extremely
easy. It permits summing up items in horizontal rows and in vertical columns or
storing data in a table by a single command.
Of course, the same tabulation operations can be performed by a BASIC pro-
gram, but substantial time is requried to write the program. In this light, the
fact that CETL requires no programming is of great significance.
With the FP-200, any table prepared by CETL can be easily called by a program
written in BASIC. This feature is called the link between CETL and BASIC.
The CETL-BAS,C link is really an important concept.
The rea~on is this: the link permits the operator to use a table prepared by
CETL in interactive mode using a BASIC program, or to compare or adjoin
data input by a BASIC program with data prepared by CETL, etc.
CETL permits flexible table construction by using 16 types of simple com-
mands. The commands include the A command to determine the direction of
data input, the I, D, and M commands to add, delete, and move items, the S
command to rearrange data, the F command to perform conditional retrieval,
and the C command to perform calculations. These commands permit perform-
ing the desired operations on specified "items" or "records".
"Records" are sets of entries in horizontal rows, and "Items" are sets of entries
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