The Bar Chart

The dashboard gives you six numbers. To compare them you still have to read and subtract in your head. A bar chart does that work for you: length is something the eye compares instantly. You already have every tool — CHR$ 143, the solid block from Oracle Stone; a FOR loop to repeat it; and INK for colour.

  10 BORDER 0: PAPER 0: INK 7: CLS
  20 RANDOMIZE
  30 LET a$ = "*** DICE ROLLER ***": LET y = 3: GO SUB 9000
  40 PRINT
  50 INPUT "How many rolls? "; n
  60 CLS
  70 LET t1 = 0: LET t2 = 0: LET t3 = 0
  80 LET t4 = 0: LET t5 = 0: LET t6 = 0
  90 PRINT "Rolling "; n; " dice..."
 100 PRINT
 110 FOR i = 1 TO n
 120 LET d = INT (RND * 6) + 1
 130 IF d = 1 THEN LET t1 = t1 + 1
 140 IF d = 2 THEN LET t2 = t2 + 1
 150 IF d = 3 THEN LET t3 = t3 + 1
 160 IF d = 4 THEN LET t4 = t4 + 1
 170 IF d = 5 THEN LET t5 = t5 + 1
 180 IF d = 6 THEN LET t6 = t6 + 1
 190 PRINT AT 2, 3; t1; "  "
 200 PRINT AT 3, 3; t2; "  "
 210 PRINT AT 4, 3; t3; "  "
 220 PRINT AT 5, 3; t4; "  "
 230 PRINT AT 6, 3; t5; "  "
 240 PRINT AT 7, 3; t6; "  "
 250 NEXT i
 260 PRINT AT 9, 0
 270 INK 2: FOR j = 1 TO t1: PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j: PRINT
 280 INK 6: FOR j = 1 TO t2: PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j: PRINT
 290 INK 4: FOR j = 1 TO t3: PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j: PRINT
 300 INK 5: FOR j = 1 TO t4: PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j: PRINT
 310 INK 3: FOR j = 1 TO t5: PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j: PRINT
 320 INK 7: FOR j = 1 TO t6: PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j: PRINT
 330 STOP

9000 PRINT AT y, (32 - LEN a$) / 2; BRIGHT 1; a$
9010 RETURN

Numbers into shape

Line 260 moves the cursor below the dashboard with PRINT AT 9, 0. Then lines 270–320 draw one bar per face. Each is a tiny FOR loop: FOR j = 1 TO t1: PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j prints t1 solid blocks in an unbroken row, then PRINT drops to the next line for the following face. A face that came up 27 times gets a bar 27 blocks long — the count becomes a length.

This is data visualisation: the same information as the dashboard, in a form the eye reads without counting. Six bars of nearly equal length say "fair die" far faster than six numbers do.

A colour each

Each bar line starts with an INK: red, yellow, green, cyan, magenta, white. Without colour the six rows blur into one block; with it, every face is distinct and the longest bar jumps out. Colour here is not decoration — it is what makes the chart legible.

Make it yours

Run it with 10 rolls, then 100, then 10000. Watch the bars start jagged and settle level — the more dice, the flatter the chart. Change the die: INT (RND * 12) + 1 for a twelve-sider (you would need six more counters and bars). Change the colours. Add a label under each bar.

What you built

Dice Roller began as one die in one line and grew into a simulation: six counters that accumulate, a dashboard that updates in place, an experiment the player sizes, and a colour bar chart that makes the result obvious. Not one command in it was new — RND, FOR, IF, PRINT AT, INPUT, GO SUB, CHR$ 143, INK all came from earlier. What was new is the combination: turning a heap of random numbers into a picture that tells you something true. That is what a program is for.

Next: Bright Spark — a memory game where the player must repeat a sequence that grows one step longer each round.