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 anelse
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 anif else endif
structure like in the following example, skipping thethen
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 theif
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 anif 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.
Evaluating multiple conditions in IF statements
SUPERBASIC doesn't have the dedicated keywords AND , OR so you have to use the bitwise operators to evaluate multiple conditions, please consider the following examples:
- AND
if (a=1)&(b=2) then c=1
- OR
if (a=1)^(b=2) then c=1
This should work as long as you use parenthesis in all evaluated expressions (Since parenthesis makes bitwise operators behave like logical operators).
Using procedures
- The
proc
keyword is only valid if it appears after anend
statement. - When calling a procedure use the procedure name followed by parenthesis (), even if the procedure has no parameters.
- Avoid any space between the procedure 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 |
ctrl-k
|
Deletes characters from cursor position to line end |
Behaviour of load and bload
- The
bload
statement does not printCompleted
when loading is successfull whereasload
does. - bload can load anywhere on memory not just under the first 64k
- An exception is that bload can't load I/O parameters that reside in $C000 - $DFFF
Control characters for cursor and colour control
In BASIC the following character codes can be used with print
to control the cursor position and colours on the screen.
Code | Effect |
---|---|
chr$(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 | Colour code | Colour |
---|---|---|---|
0 | Black | 8 | Dark grey |
1 | Grey | 9 | Light grey (default foreground) |
2 | Dark blue (default background colour) | 10 | Blue |
3 | Green | 11 | Light green |
4 | Purple | 12 | Light purple |
5 | Brown | 13 | Red |
6 | Orange | 14 | Yellow |
7 | Light blue | 15 | White |
Character Set
- Access to the full character set can be obtained by using the
CPRINT
command instead of the normalPRINT
command. - Characters can also be set on the screen text matrix using the
POKE
command starting at$C000
providing the MMU I/O control is set to 2 by executing aPOKE 1,2
command first (remember to restore the MMU I/O once you're done).
- Color can also be set on the screen color matrix using the
POKE
command starting at$C000
providing the MMU I?O control is set to 3 by executing aPOKE 1,3
command first (remember to restore the MMU I/O once you're done). - When poking colors on the screen, the low nibble is the background color and the high nibble is the character color.
Memcopy lockup
- In certain situations the
memcopy
command can lockup. - A machine language utility that performs the same function as
memcopy
is available ifmemcopy
fails. - mlcopy is a short routine that replaces
memcopy
and is more reliable. It can be loaded into memory with a BLOAD command in your program, or with a basic loader that can be added to your program. - In place of the
memcopy
command you would use 3POKEL
commands and aCALL
command to engage the DMA engine.
POKEL $0903,data source
POKEL $0906,destination
POKEL $0909,number of bytes to copy
CALL $0900