DOCS: TURBO BASIC Command List
From: Len Stys (aa399)
Date: 12/23/89-09:48:24 PM Z
From: aa399 (Len Stys)
Subject: DOCS: TURBO BASIC Command List
Date: Sat Dec 23 21:48:24 1989
TURBO BASIC COMMAND LIST
--------an on-line reading text--------
Compiled and Translated by
Dave and Laura Yearke
This documentation is provided by the
Western New York Atari Users Group and
may be reprinted freely provided this
credit is included.
In case you've just landed from
Mars, or just plain haven't heard yet,
TURBO BASIC is the exciting new Public
Domain Basic Interpreter that we
recieved from the Atari Users Group in
Holland. It works on the XL or XE
series of Atari computers. It's almost
too good to be true and should be a
definate must for all XE or XL Atari
owners.
Turbo BASIC, in addition to
offering 42 more commands and 22 more
functions than Atari BASIC, gives the
user 1603 more bytes of program space
by "hiding" part of itself under the
XL/XE's operating system. It also runs
3 times faster than Atari BASIC,
includes most DOS commands, has
advanced graphics and programming
functions, and is insensitive to lower
case or inverse characters for most
commands.
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
"vertical
radius" for true
circles or
ellipses.
CLS CLS Clears the
screen.
CLS #6 Clear screen
opened in
channel 6.
FCOLOR FCOLOR n Determines fill
color.
FILLTO FILLTO x,y A fill command
analagous to the
BASIC commands
"POSITION x,y:
XIO
18,#6,0,0,"S:"
PAINT PAINT x,y 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.
TEXT TEXT x,y,a$ bit-blocks text
in a$ at x,y.
memory
DPOKE DPOKE m,v Pokes location
m,m+1 with
2-byte integer
v (0 <= v <=
65535).
MOVE MOVE m,m1,m2 Block transfer;
moves m2 (number
of bytes) from
starting
position m to
new starting
position m1.
MOVE -MOVE m,m1,m2 Same as MOVE but
copies starting
with the last
byte of the
block.
BPUT BPUT #n,adr,len Block Put; same
as FOR I=0 TO
len-1:PUT
#n,PEEK
(adr+I):NEXT I
BGET BGET #n,adr,len Block Get; same
as FOR I=0 TO
len-1:GET #N,A:
POKE adr+I):NEXT
I
%PUT %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 %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,
A".
structured
programming
REPEAT REPEAT Start a
REPEAT-UNTIL
loop.
UNTIL UNTIL <c> Terminate when
condition <c>
met.
WHILE WHILE <c> Start a
WHILE-WEND loop
to end when
condition <c>
met.
WEND WEND Terminate a
WHILE-END loop.
ELSE ELSE Optional
extension for
IF. The IF
condition must
not be followed
by a "THEN", but
terminated by
end-of-line or
colon.
ENDIF ENDIF 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.
DO DO Starts an
"infinite" DO
loop.
LOOP LOOP Cycle back to
the start of a
DO loop.
EXIT EXIT Exit a DO-LOOP
loop.
PROC PROC name Start definition
of procedure.
ENDPROC ENDPROC End definition
of procedure.
EXEC EXEC name Execute
procedure name.
general
programming
PAUSE PAUSE n Pause processing
for n/50
seconds.
RENUM RENUM n,i,j 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.
DEL DEL n,i Delete lines
n-i.
DUMP DUMP Display all
variables and
values. For
numeric arrays,
the numbers are
the DIMed values
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 Trace program
during
execution.
TRACE - Turns trace mode
off (Default).
DSOUND DSOUND n,f,d,v Form of SOUND
which activates
channel-pairing
for increased
frequency range.
DSOUND Turns off all
sounds.
GO TO GO TO n Alternate form
of GOTO.
*L *L Turn line-indent
on (Default).
*L - Turns
line-indent off.
*F *F (or *F +) Special mode for
FOR..NEXT loops
which corrects a
bug in Atari
BASIC. Seems
that in Atari
BASIC, an
"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.
*F - Turns off the
special
FOR..NEXT mode
to make Turbo
BASIC act like
Atari BASIC.
*B *B (or *B +) Command which
allows the break
key to be
trapped via the
"TRAP" command
within a
program.
*B - Turns off the
special BREAK
key mode.
-- -- Special form of
REM which puts
30 dashes in a
program listing.
line labels
# # name Assigns the
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.
GO# GO# name Analagous to the
GOTO command.
modifications
CLOSE CLOSE Close channels
1-7.
DIM DIM a(n) Will
automatically
assign a value
of zero to all
elements of the
numeric array
being
dimensioned, and
null characters
to all elements
of a string (The
LEN is still
variable,
however, and
initially zero).
GET GET name Wait for a key
press, assign
the value to
name. Same as
"OPEN
#7,4,0,"K:":GET
#7,name:CLOSE
#7".
INPUT INPUT "text";a,b...
Prints text as a
prompt before
asking for
variable(s),
same as
Microsoft-BASIC.
LIST LIST n, List program
from line n to
end.
ON ON a EXEC
n1,n2,... Variation of
ON...GOSUB for
procedures. N1,
n2 and so on are
names of
procedures to be
run.
ON a GO#
n1,n2,... Similar to
ON...GOTO except
that line labels
are used instead
of line numbers.
POP POP This command now
pops the runtime
stack for all
four types of
loops.
PUT PUT n Same as "PRINT
CHR$(n)";
RESTORE RESTORE #name Restores the
data line
indicated by the
label name.
RND RND Parentheses are
no longer needed
at the end of
this command,
but it will
still work if
they are there.
SOUND SOUND Turn off all
sounds.
TRAP TRAP #name TRAPs to the
line referenced
by the label
name.
TURBO BASIC FUNCTIONS:
arithmetic/logic
HEX$ HEX$(n) Convert n to hex
string.
DEC DEC(a$) Convert hex
string A$ to
decimal.
DIV n DIV i Integer quotient
of n/i.
MOD n MOD i Integer
remainder of
n/i.
FRAC FRAC(a) Fractional part
of a.
TRUNC TRUNC(a) Truncates
fractional part
of a.
RAND RAND(n) Generates random
number 0-n.
$ $nnnn Allows input of
hexidecimal
numbers, but
they are
converted to
decimal. Ex:
"FOR I=$0600 to
$067F" => "FOR
I=1536 to 1663".
& n & i 8-bit boolean
AND.
! n ! i 8-bit boolean
OR.
EXOR n EXOR i 8-bit
Exclusive-OR.
memory
DPEEK DPEEK(m) Double-PEEK of
m,m+1.
TIME TIME Time of
day(numeric).
TIME$ TIME$ 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
each hour.
INKEY$ INKEY$ Returns last
character typed.
INSTR 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 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 ERR Value of last
error number.
ERL ERL Line last error
occurred at.
constants
%0
%1
%2
%3
These four constants simply stand for
the numbers 0-3, respectively. The
difference with using these in a
program is that "X=1" requires 10
bytes, whereas "X=%1" only needs 4
(numbers require 7 bytes, 6 for the
number plus an identifier preceeding
it. It is always a good practice to
make variables for numbers that are
used more than three times in a
program).
NOTES:
1. Variable, Procedure and Label names
may contain the underscore (_)
character.
2. To print a double-quote (") in a
text string, use two of them together,
instead of the Atari BASIC method of
using CHR$(34). Ex:
"TEST";CHR$(34);"TEXT" becomes
"TEST""TEXT" in Turbo-BASIC, both of
which produce the output => TEST"TEXT.
3. Upon initial boot-up, TURBO-BASIC
looks for a BASIC file named
AUTORUN.BAS. If it finds an AUTORUN.BAS
file, it will automatically load and
run this file.
4. Turbo-BASIC also prints out English
descriptions of all errors, including
several new ones for errors involving
the new commands:
Error - 22 ?NEST = Loops not properly
nested.
Error - 23 ?WHILE = WEND with no
corresponding
WHILE.
Error - 24 ?REPEAT = UNTIL with no
corresponding
REPEAT.
Error - 25 ?DO = LOOP with no
corresponding DO.
Error - 26 ?EXIT = EXIT is outside a
loop.
Error - 27 ?XPROC = Error executing
PROC.
Error - 28 ?EXEC = ENDPROC with no
corresponding
EXEC.
Error - 29 ?PROC = Procedure does not
exist.
Error - 30 ?# = Label does not
exist.
Also, Error 15 has been expanded to
include an UNTIL which relates to a
REPEAT which has been deleted.
4. A multiline IF is constructed like this:
10 IF X > 10
20 PRINT X-10
30 GO# TOO_BIG
40 ELSE
50 PRINT X
60 GO# X_IS_OK
70 ENDIF
Note also the use of line labels in the
GOTO statements.
--
PLEASE NOTE: The information contained on this system is not
intended to supplant individual professional consultation,
but is offered as a community education service. Advice on
individual problems should be obtained directly from a professional.
--
--
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