SuperBASIC

SuperBASIC is inspired by BBC BASIC but offers quite a bit more.

• SuperBASIC Reference Manual.
• SuperBASIC Memory Map
• Watch EMWhite's excellent intro series on YouTube: Full Playlist.

An informal list of tips, "gotchas":

IF, THEN, ELSE

Source of this tip: Ernesto

• A regular if then condition can't contain an else statement, as in this example:

10 if a=0 then x=10

• If you need to do an if then else structure, you actually have to do an if else endif structure like in the following example, skipping the then statement.

10 if a=0
20 x=1
30 else
40 x=2
50 endif

• If you do it in one line it needs to have some colons added, making it look weird like this:

10 if a=0:x=1:else:x=2:endif

• if you dare to omit the endif thinking that the if statement won't need it, (mmm.., everything is in one line, so no need, right?) -Nope...all hell breaks loose!-

10 if a=0:x=1:else:x=2: REM "<-- Error, omited the endif"

• be careful not to add an extra then statement by mistake to an if else endif structure, if you do -All hell breaks loose again!!-

10 if a=0 then  : rem "<-- Error, THEN is not needed!!!"
20 x=1
30 else
40 x=2
50 endif

Debugging hint: If you encounter an error like "open structure" or "endproc without a proc": do not trust the line number that you are given. The root of the problem is probably in a structure earlier on in the code.

Using procedures

• The proc keyword is only valid if it appears after an end statement.
• When executing a proc use the name followed by parenthesis (), even if the proc has no parameters
• Avoid any space between the proc name and the parenthesis, else it will produce an error

Keyboard shortcuts

Key combination	Effect
ctrl-c or RUN STOP on the F256K	Stops a listing or a running program
ctrl-l	Clears the screen
ctrl-a or CLR/HOME on the F256K	Move cursor to the first character in the current line
ctrl-e	Move cursor to the last character in the current line
ctrl-i	Move cursor 8 characters to the right

Behaviour of load and bload

The bload statement does not print Completed when loading is successfull whereas load does.

Control characters for cursor and colour control

In BASIC the following character codes can be used with print to control the cursor position and colours on the screen.

Code	Effect
chr$(12)	Clear screen and set cursor to upper left corner
chr$(16)	Cursor up
chr$(14)	Cursor down
chr$(2)	Cursor left
chr$(6)	Cursor right
chr$(1)	Set cursor to leftmost position in current line
chr$(5)	Set cursor to righmost position in current line
chr$(128) - chr$(143)	Set foreground color. Code 128 is black 143 is white. The rest follows the sequence given below
chr$(144) - chr$(159)	Set background color. Code 144 is black 159 is white. The rest follows the sequence given below

Colour code	Colour
0	Black
1	Grey
2	Dark blue (default background colour)
3	Green
4	Purple
5	Brown
6	Orange
7	Light blue
8	Dark grey
9	Light grey (default foreground colour)
10	Blue
11	Light green
12	Light purple
13	Red
14	Yellow
15	White