USING THE BASIC INTERPRETER/COMPILER BASIC can be used in either of two ways 1. Calculator or Immediate Mode 2. To Run BASIC programs Further HELP with BASIC may be obtained by typing HELP BASIC keywords where 'keywords' are any of the following. Calls BASIC callable functions Entering Invoking BASIC FIles Using files from BASIC FUnctions Standard BASIC functions Immediate mode Using BASIC as a calculator Program mode Writing and executing BASIC programs. Variables BASIC variable types and their uses 2 FILES @BASICFILE 2 VARIABLES @BASISVARI 2 FUNCTIONS @BASICFUNC 2 IMMEDIATE MODE BASIC IMMEDIATE MODE Most BASIC statements can be entered at the terminal without a line number. ie. A=4 PRINT SQR(LOG(4))*PI/A Complicated equations can be entered and the results can be printed out on demand, much the way a calculator does. By including the calculation within a 1 line FOR/NEXT loop, it is possible to calculate and print out an entire table of results. The power of BASIC is greatly enhanced when it is used to run user written programs. For information type: HELP PROGRAM MODE 2 PROGRAM MODE BASIC can be used as a simple and very powerful programing language. Each BASIC statement must have a unique LINE NUMBER. The commands/statements are very simple, i.e. MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS ARITHMETIC ASSIGNMENTS BRANCHING(GOTO, GOSUB,RETRUN) CONDITIONALS( IF....THEN) LOOPING( FOR / NEXT) INPUT/OUTPUT TO TERMINAL AND DISK FILES The USER should get a copy of the BASIC LANGUAGE REFERENCE MANUAL and the BASIC USER'S GUIDE and spend a few hours reading them. They are short manuals, and a few hours of study manuals, and a few hours of study will enable anyone to write useful programs in basic. ****** WARNING ****** ****** Until further notice the user is advised **** ****** not to use the BASIC COMPILE command. **** 2 ENTERING To enter BASIC type BASIC after loging on the system. BASIC will prompt with READY every time it is ready to accept a command. Initially BASIC is in its EDIT mode. Any line typed in preceded by a number is entered as program text. Any line without a initial number is interpreted as a command. Once a number of program lines have been writen, they can be 1. LISTED LIST nnn-mmm 2. SAVED SAVE filespecifier 3. REPLACED REPLACE filspecifier 4. RUN RUN filespecifier A SAVED program can be recalled into memory by the OLD command. OLD filespecifier To exit BASIC the user must type BYE . However, when the user exits BASIC, she is still logged onto the system. The user types BYE again to LOGOFF. 2 CALLS BASIC CALLABLE FUNCTIONS Basic provides a means of interfacing to and using Assembly Language Routines from within a BASIC SOURCE PROGRAM. This is accom- plished via the CALL statement. the syntax of the CALL statement is, CALL "ABCDEF" (P1,P2,P3,...) where ABCDEF is the function name (1 to 6 characters long) , and must be in quotes. The parameters P1, ... etc, are optional. Their use depends on what parameters need be passed from BASIC to the Assembly Language Routine and back again. However, for a given callable function, the parameters, their order, and their variable type must be exactly as they are supposed to be(otherwise your BASIC program might CRASH). The following callable functions are now available; PAGE, COPY, WAIT, DATEL, DIOPR, AND DIOPW. Specific HELP may be requested by typing HELP BASIC CALL keyword with one of the functions as a keyword. 3 PAGE PAGE Erases the screen of a 4014 or 4006 terminal 3 COPY COPY Makes a hard copy of the 4014 or 4006 screen 3 WAIT WAIT (x%,y%) Causes the BASIC program to suspend execution for a count of x% time units, where the time units are determined by y%. If y%=2, the time units are seconds. If y% = 1 the time units are ticks(100 ticks/second). Both the variables x% and y% must be BASIC integer variables. 3 DATEL DATEL (n%,x%) Acquires the voltage on DATEL channel n%, and places the value in x%. The voltage is in terms of ADC counts(-2048-+2048 counts over a -5 to +5 volt range.). The variables n% and x% must be BASIC integers(for example, a string variable in the place of x% will crash your program). 3 DIOPR DIOPR (n%,A$,l%) Reads the data present on DIOP channel n% into the string variable A$, whose length is l%. On input l% must equal 6. The string variable, A$, must be predefined to be 6 characters long. i.e. A$=" " (6 spaces between quotes) Trying to read an output channel will produce a DIOP OFFLINE message. The data read into A$ must be interpreted as an octal constant. 3 DIOPW DIOPW (n%,A$,l%) Write the octal value in A$, with a length l% out onto channel n% of the DIOP. Only octal constants are allowed with lengths, l%, <=6. Writing to a read only channel produces a device offline message.