Turbo basic commands
- 1. TURBO BASIC COMMANDS: Name Syntax Description disk i/o BLOAD BLOAD "D:name" Binary loads file name (DOS option L with /N). BRUN BRUN "D:name" Binary load and run file name (DOS option L). DELETE DELETE "D:name" Deletes the file name (DOS option D). DIR DIR Disk directory (DOS option A). DIR "Dn:*.*" Directory of drive n, note that wildcard extenders may be used. LOCK LOCK "D:name" Locks the file name (DOS option F). RENAME RENAME "D:old,new" Renames the file name (DOS option E). UNLOCK UNLOCK "D:name" Unlocks the file name (DOS option G). graphics CIRCLE CIRCLE x,y,r Plots a circle with center at x,y and radius r. CIRCLE x,y,r,r2 R2 is an optional
- 2. CLS CLS CLS #6 FCOLOR FCOLOR n FILLTO FILLTO x,y PAINT PAINT x,y TEXT TEXT x,y,a$ "vertical radius" for true circles or ellipses. Clears the screen. Clear screen opened in channel 6. Determines fill color. A fill command analagous to the BASIC commands "POSITION x,y: XIO 18,#6,0,0,"S:" Another type of fill command, this one is a recursive routine that will fill any closed object as long as x,y are inside it. bit-blocks text in a$ at x,y. memory DPOKE DPOKE m,v MOVE MOVE m,m1,m2 Pokes location m,m+1 with 2-byte integer v (0 <= v <= 65535). Block transfer; moves m2 (number of bytes) from starting position m to new starting
- 3. MOVE BPUT BGET %PUT %GET position m1. -MOVE m,m1,m2 Same as MOVE but copies starting with the last byte of the block. BPUT #n,adr,len Block Put; same as FOR I=0 TO len-1:PUT #n,PEEK (adr+I):NEXT I BGET #n,adr,len Block Get; same as FOR I=0 TO len-1:GET #N,A: POKE adr+I):NEXT I %PUT #n,a Until now, there was no convenient way to put numeric values onto disk or cassette files other than by using PRINT, which converted them to strings first, a slow and cumbersome process. %PUT puts the number to the device "as is," in 6-byte FP format. %GET #n,A Get a number stored with %PUT from the device and store it in variable A. Again, this is much faster than using "INPUT #n,
- 4. A". structured programming REPEAT REPEAT UNTIL UNTIL <c> WHILE WHILE <c> WEND WEND ELSE ELSE ENDIF ENDIF DO DO Start a REPEAT-UNTIL loop. Terminate when condition <c> met. Start a WHILE-WEND loop to end when condition <c> met. Terminate a WHILE-END loop. Optional extension for IF. The IF condition must not be followed by a "THEN", but terminated by end-of-line or colon. Ends an IF-ELSE-ENDIF or IF-ELSE condition. Note that this allows an IF condition to span more than one BASIC line, provided the "IF" statement is structured as shown in Note 4. Starts an "infinite" DO
- 5. LOOP LOOP EXIT EXIT PROC PROC name ENDPROC ENDPROC EXEC EXEC name loop. Cycle back to the start of a DO loop. Exit a DO-LOOP loop. Start definition of procedure. End definition of procedure. Execute procedure name. general programming PAUSE PAUSE n RENUM RENUM n,i,j DEL DEL n,i DUMP DUMP Pause processing for n/50 seconds. Renumber the program starting at line n, first number is i, increment is j. This function will handle GOTOs, TRAPs, and all other line references except those which involve variables or computed values. Delete lines n-i. Display all variables and values. For numeric arrays, the numbers are the DIMed values
- 6. TRACE DSOUND GO TO *L *F plus one. For strings, the first number is the current LENgth of it and the second number is the DIMed size of it. DUMP also lists procedure names and labels with their line values. DUMP name DUMP to device name, such as "P:" or "D:DUMP.DAT". TRACE Trace program during execution. TRACE Turns trace mode off (Default). DSOUND n,f,d,v Form of SOUND which activates channel-pairing for increased frequency range. DSOUND Turns off all sounds. GO TO n Alternate form of GOTO. *L Turn line-indent on (Default). *L Turns line-indent off. *F (or *F +) Special mode for FOR..NEXT loops which corrects a bug in Atari BASIC. Seems that in Atari BASIC, an
- 7. *F - *B *B (or *B +) *B -- -- "illegal" reverse loop like "FOR X=2 TO 1:PRINT X:NEXT X" will execute once even though the condition is met initially (X is already greater than 1). Turbo BASIC fixes this bug, but leaves it available for Atari BASIC programs which may take advantage of it. Turns off the special FOR..NEXT mode to make Turbo BASIC act like Atari BASIC. Command which allows the break key to be trapped via the "TRAP" command within a program. Turns off the special BREAK key mode. Special form of REM which puts 30 dashes in a program listing. line labels # # name Assigns the
- 8. GO# GO# name current line number to the label name. This is a convenient way to get around the problem of renumbering when using variables as line numbers. Labels can be thought of as a special form of variable, as they occupy the variable name table along with the "regular" variables. We also believe that the number of variables allowed has been increased from 128 to 256 to allow for the addition of these labels. Analagous to the GOTO command. modifications CLOSE CLOSE DIM DIM a(n) Close channels 1-7. Will automatically assign a value of zero to all elements of the numeric array being
- 9. GET GET name INPUT INPUT LIST LIST n, ON ON a EXEC n1,n2,... ON a GO# n1,n2,... POP POP dimensioned, and null characters to all elements of a string (The LEN is still variable, however, and initially zero). Wait for a key press, assign the value to name. Same as "OPEN #7,4,0,"K:":GET #7,name:CLOSE #7". "text";a,b... Prints text as a prompt before asking for variable(s), same as Microsoft-BASIC. List program from line n to end. Variation of ON...GOSUB for procedures. N1, n2 and so on are names of procedures to be run. Similar to ON...GOTO except that line labels are used instead of line numbers. This command now pops the runtime
- 10. PUT RESTORE RND SOUND TRAP stack for all four types of loops. PUT n Same as "PRINT CHR$(n)"; RESTORE #name Restores the data line indicated by the label name. RND Parentheses are no longer needed at the end of this command, but it will still work if they are there. SOUND Turn off all sounds. TRAP #name TRAPs to the line referenced by the label name. TURBO BASIC FUNCTIONS: arithmetic/logic HEX$ HEX$(n) DEC DEC(a$) DIV n DIV i MOD n MOD i FRAC FRAC(a) TRUNC TRUNC(a) Convert n to hex string. Convert hex string A$ to decimal. Integer quotient of n/i. Integer remainder of n/i. Fractional part of a. Truncates
- 11. RAND RAND(n) $ $nnnn & n & i ! n ! i EXOR n EXOR i fractional part of a. Generates random number 0-n. Allows input of hexidecimal numbers, but they are converted to decimal. Ex: "FOR I=$0600 to $067F" => "FOR I=1536 to 1663". 8-bit boolean AND. 8-bit boolean OR. 8-bit Exclusive-OR. memory DPEEK DPEEK(m) TIME TIME TIME$ TIME$ Double-PEEK of m,m+1. Time of day(numeric). Time of day string, HHMMSS. Unfortunately, the time commands don't work properly because they were written for European Ataris which operate at 50 Hz, instead of 60 Hz like American ones, the net result being that they gain 12 minutes
- 12. INKEY$ INSTR UINSTR ERR ERL each hour. INKEY$ Returns last character typed. INSTR(x$,a$) Returns relative location of start of string A$ within X$ (returns 0 if not found). The match must be exact; strings with the same letters but differences in case or type (normal or inverse) will not be found. INSTR(x$,a$,i) i specifies the starting point of the search. UINSTR(x$,a$) Same as INSTR, does not distinguish between case or inverse characters. Ex: UINSTR("HeLlO", "hello") returns 1. UINSTR (x$,a$,i) Specifies optional starting point. ERR Value of last error number. ERL Line last error occurred at.