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ADVBAS.LIB v2.6, 9/19/86 Advanced Function Library for the BASIC Compiler Copyright (C) Thomas Hanlin III, 1985, 1986 Requirements: An IBM PC or compatible with the IBM BASIC Compiler or the Microsoft QuickBASIC Compiler. PC-DOS/MS-DOS versions 2.0 or higher should be used. The BASIC Compiler is a powerful and flexible tool. However, it suf- fers from a number of serious limitations. The early versions were designed for DOS v1, and cannot handle version 2+ functions such as subdirectories; there is little direct access to many advanced DOS features such as selective screen scrolling; and the speed is not all that it might be, for all its improvement over interpreted BASIC. To reduce these problems, I've designed a number of assembly language routines which perform desirable functions, and put them in a library which the compiler can access. Since I have found these functions to be useful, I thought I'd pass them on to other people. You may use ADVBAS functions in any of your programs. If you do so, I would appreciate you sending a contribution (recommended amount $25, which will get you a disk containing the source code to these routines, an explanation of how BASIC tokenizes programs, a crossreference utility, a communications program [Eterm] with source, and lots more; registered users may receive updates for $10). It would also be nice if you acknowledged use of these routines in your program. ADVBAS may be copied and distributed freely as long as it and this manual are included unchanged. The copyright is to pre- serve my options, and to protect you from the untoward modifications of others. It is not intended to prevent the free distribution of ADVBAS. To use ADVBAS functions, you must copy ADVBAS.LIB to the disk on which you keep your BASIC Compiler library files. When you compile a program which uses an ADVBAS function, you must specify ADVBAS (preceeded by a drive letter if it's on a different disk than the program you're compiling) when LINK asks you which libraries to use. That is, at the LINKer prompt "Libraries [.LIB]:" you should say "ADVBAS" (without the quotes!). These functions have not caused me any problems, and seem to be fully debugged; however, I will not be responsible for any damages caused by use, misuse, or inability to use ADVBAS. But I'll try my best to fix any problems you may turn up! Keep in mind that ADVBAS functions will work only with the compiler, not the interpreter. Aside from their convenience, these functions: 1) add abilities which are not otherwise available; 2) are generally faster than the corresponding Compiled BASIC code; 3) usually take up less space in the resulting EXEcutable file; 4) often leave you more free programming space. Operation Notes Function Requirements: Numeric variables used in function calls must be integers unless specified otherwise. Either declare them using DEFINT, or add a percent sign "%" to the end of the variable name. Strings sometimes must be defined to a certain minimum length, due to limitations on what machine language routines are allowed to do to strings. Follow the guidelines for each routine in these respects, or the program will not work as expected! Compatibility: These functions vary in what they demand of your PC. Some functions will work only on IBM PCs or clones, some will work on compatibles, and some will work on any MS-DOS routine. The compatibility level of each function is now listed, using the categories CLONE (will work on hardware compatibles only), BIOS (close compatibles), DOS (any MS-DOS machine), and ANY (hardware independent). Be warned that the BASIC Compiler itself does not produce parti- cularly compatible code (BASIC video routines seem to be BIOS-compatible, etc). QuickBASIC 2.0: You can't use ADVBAS (or any assembly-language routines) with QB2 when the compile-to-memory option is on. To use ADVBAS, either compile your prog- rams using the old "separate compilation method" (QB manual, page 538), or set the compiler to either "Compile to .OBJ module" option. You can get to the latter from the QB environment by typing ALT-R, then choosing the "Compile..." option, then picking the "Compile to .OBJ module" option. See your QB reference if you can't figure out how to do this-- for an "intuitive" environment, the new setup is awfully counterintuitive. Please mail contributions, suggestions for additional functions, ques- tions, comments, etc. to the following address: Thomas Hanlin III 6812 Sydenstricker Rd Springfield, VA 22152 Routine Reference Disk: DelSub, GetSub, MakeSub, SetSub: subdirectory handling GetDrv, SetDrv: default drive control DrvSpace: space left on a given drive GetFdate, GetFtime, SetFTD, GetFattr, SetFattr: file info control FindFirstF, FindNextF: read file directory GetNameF, GetDateF, GetTimeF, GetAttrF, GetSizeF: file dir control Keyboard: GetKey: get one of a list of valid keys KeyPress: see if a key has been pressed String: Bsq, BusqLen, Busq: text compression/decompression Locase, Upcase: case conversion MultiAnd, MultiOr, MultiXor: bit manipulations on chars in a string Strip, StripRange: deletion of certain chars from a string LRotate, RRotate, Reverse: reorder chars in a string Xlate: run the chars of a string through a translation table Extract: extract delimited substrings from a string using an index Soundex: return the Soundex code of a string Checksum, CRC: error checking (for telecom and other uses) Array: AddMatI, SetMatI: integer array manipulation ReadBitF, WriteBitF: handle arrays of arbitrary bit length Video: DMprint, Mprint, MprintC, Qprint, XQprint: various print routines ClrEol, BkSpace, DelChr, InsChr, MDelChr, MInsChr: screen control Mwindow, Scroll, BkScroll: window control ScrSave, ScrRest, GetLine: save/restore the contents of a screen ScrSaveP, ScrSavePD, ScrRestP, ScrRestPD: variants on the above ReColor: change any screen color to another w/o clearing screen Miscellaneous: Any2Dec, Dec2Any: radix conversion (decimal <--> another base) GetDOSv: get the version number of the MS-DOS being used SetComm: set up any comm port to any baud, without closing communications WeekDay: returns the day of the week, Sunday through Saturday Compatibility Chart Works on ANY machine: ADDMATI, ANY2DEC, BSQ, BUSQ, BUSQLEN, CHECKSUM, CRC, DEC2ANY, EXTRACT, GETLINE, LOCASE, LROTATE, MULTIAND, MULTIOR, MULTIXOR, READBITF, REVERSE, RROTATE, SETMATI, SOUNDEX, STRIP, STRIPRANGE, UPCASE, WRITEBITF, XLATE Works on DOS compatibles: DELSUB, DMPRINT, DRVSPACE, FINDFIRSTF, FINDNEXTF, GETATTRF, GETDATEF, GETDOSV, GETDRV, GETFATTR, GETFDATE, GETFTIME, GETNAMEF, GETSIZEF, GETSUB, GETTIMEF, MAKESUB, SETDRV, SETFATTR, SETFTD, SETSUB, WEEKDAY Works on BIOS compatibles: BKSCROLL, BKSPACE, CLREOL, GETKEY, KEYPRESS, MDELCHR, MINSCHR, MPRINT, MPRINTC, MWINDOW, SCROLL, XMPRINT Works on CLONEs (hardware compatibles): DELCHR, INSCHR, QPRINT, RECOLOR, SCRREST, SCRRESTP, SCRRESTPD, SCRSAVE, SCRSAVEP, SCRSAVEPD, SETCOMM, XQPRINT, XQPRINTD Note that routines from higher sections will work on machines from lower sections (DOS-level routines will work on BIOS- and CLONE-level machines). It doesn't work the other way around (CLONE-level routines may not work on a DOS-level machine). Name: ADDMATI Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Adds a scalar (integer) value to the first SIZ elements of an integer array. You can subtract by adding a negative number. If the results of the calculation ever go outside integer range (-32768 to 32767), the overflow flag is set on return. See SETMATI for more information. Example: DEFINT A-Z: OPTION BASE 1: DIM ACK(10000): SIZ=10000 . . ADDVAL=-6: ARLOC=VARPTR(ACK(1)) CALL ADDMATI(ARLOC,SIZ,ADDVAL,OVFLOW) IF OVFLOW THEN PRINT"Uh oh, overflowed somewhere..." REM we just subtracted six from each element of the array ACK. Name: ANY2DEC Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Converts a number (in string form) from any base (2-35) to a decimal integer (base 10). The number to be converted may be in either signed integer range (-32768 to 32767) or unsigned integer range (0 to 65535). It is con- verted to a signed integer, which is the only integer type BASIC supports. Example: INPUT"Number, base of number";ANUM$,NBASE CALL ANY2DEC(ANUM$,NBASE,DNUM,ERCD) IF ERCD THEN PRINT"Bad number!" ELSE PRINT"Decimal: ";DNUM Name: BKSCROLL Type: Video / BIOS Description: The same as SCROLL (q.v.), but scrolls lines in the opposite direction (Back Scroll). Example: CALL BKSCROLL(LEFTCOL,TOPROW,RTCOL,BOTROW,NUMLINES) Name: BKSPACE Type: Video / BIOS Description: Move cursor back one space, destroying the character on the space moved to. Will wrap from one line to the next higher if necessary. If at the top left corner of the screen, no action is performed. Two arguments return the new cursor coordinates, since machine language programs cannot directly change the BASIC cursor position. Example: CALL BKSPACE(COL,ROW) : LOCATE ROW,COL Name: BSQ Type: String / ANY Description: Uses several techniques to compress blank spaces out of an ASCII string. Savings range from 16% (reliable, for ordinary text) to up around 50% or more for space-intensive info, such as lines in an assembly source file. BSQ cannot handle more than 127 spaces in a row on a single line, or lines which contain ASCII characters greater than 127 (which are IBM-specific graphics characters). Do not use BSQ on lines which may contain such information! BSQ compression is designed to produce printable (if odd-looking) text which you may read/write to ordinary sequential files. Example: INPUT"String to squeeze";ST$: CALL BSQ(ST$,SLEN) PRINT"Squeezed string: ";LEFT$(ST$,SLEN) Name: BUSQ Type: String / ANY Description: Decompresses a line squeezed by BSQ. Use BUSQLEN before this routine to find out how long the unsqueezed line will be! Example: see BUSQLEN Name: BUSQLEN Type: String / ANY Description: Tells how long a line squeezed with BSQ will be once it's unsqueezed. You must use this before unsqueezing the line with BUSQ. Example: CALL BUSQLEN(ST$,SLEN) IF SLEN<0 THEN line is not squeezed, or got damaged somehow-- exit! ELSE UNSQ$=SPACE$(SLEN): CALL BUSQ(ST$,UNSQ$) Name: CHECKSUM Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Calculates a checksum for a record. Can be used with Xmodem or Ymodem. Example: CALL CHECKSUM(REC$,CHKSM) Name: CLREOL Type: Video / BIOS Description: Clear from cursor position to end of line. Doesn't move the cursor. No arguments. Example: CALL CLREOL Name: CRC Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Calculates a cyclical redundancy check value for a record. Can be used with Xmodem CRC or Ymodem CRC. Example: Sending a record: REC$=REC$+STRING$(2,0) : CALL CRC(REC$,HICRC,LOCRC) : MID$(REC$,LEN(REC$)-1,2) = CHR$(HICRC)+CHR$(LOCRC) : send Xmodem record Receiving a record: CALL CRC(REC$,HICRC,LOCRC) : IF HICRC=0 AND LOCRC=0 THEN record is fine, save it ELSE record is bad, request it to be sent again Name: DEC2ANY Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Converts a number from decimal (base 10) to any other base (2-35). The number will be converted to an unsigned integer (signed range of -32768 to 32767 is converted to unsigned range of 0 to 65535), to conform with the built-in BASIC conversion functions HEX$ and OCT$. ANUM$ must be initialized to the maximum size you expect the resultant number to be; this is recommended to be 16 characters, which is the maximum length possible. The result is right-justified in the field you provide, so if you want to keep leading zeroes, just ignore the actual-length specification ALEN. Example: INPUT"Decimal number, to base";DNUM,NBASE ANUM$ = STRING$(16,"0"): CALL DEC2ANY(DNUM,NBASE,ANUM$,ALEN) IF ALEN<0 THEN PRINT"Bad base or ANUM$ initialized too short" ELSE PRINT"Result: ";RIGHT$(ANUM$,ALEN) Name: DELCHR Type: Video / CLONE Description: Deletes a character from the specified location on the screen. The char- acter at that location will disappear, and all characters to the right of it on the same screen line will be shifted left one space. This function should work on either color or monochrome monitors, in either 40 or 80 column text modes. The first page only (color monitor) is supported, and graphics modes won't work. Example: COL = POS(0): ROW = CSRLIN: CALL DELCHR(ROW,COL) Name: DELSUB Type: Disk / DOS Description: Deletes a subdirectory. Parameters used are the same as in SETSUB. Note that you may not delete a subdirectory if it has any files left in it, or if it is the main directory, or if it is the current default subdirectory. Example: TMP$ = SUB$+CHR$(0): CALL DELSUB(TMP$,ERRCODE) IF ERRCODE THEN couldn't delete subdir ELSE subdir deleted Name: DMPRINT Type: Video / DOS Description: Displays a string at the current cursor position, using DOS calls for output (so device drivers such as ANSI.SYS will work). This routine is consid- erably faster than MPRINT (q.v.), but offers fewer amenities. Character trans- lation is limited to what DOS provides, meaning that, for instance, Backspace just moves the cursor back without wiping out the previous character. Other control codes may not be translated as you might hope, either. Finally, since DOS provides no way of finding the current print position, you have to figure out where the cursor will be yourself if you need it (like other display rou- tines, DMPRINT does not update the BASIC cursor position). You can gain con- trol of such things by using the ANSI.SYS driver. See your DOS manual for more information on that. Example: CALL DMPRINT(ST$) Name: DRVSPACE Type: Disk / DOS Description: Returns the amount of free space left on a given disk drive. The drive string may be any legal disk drive, or "@" (AT sign) for the default drive, and must be at least one character long. An illegal drive or other error will cause free space to be returned as a negative value. Example: DRV$="A:" . . CALL DRVSPACE(DRV$,A,B,C): FREE# = CDBL(A)*CDBL(B)*CDBL(C) PRINT"Free space on drive ";DRV$;" is";FREE#;"bytes." Name: EXTRACT Type: String / ANY Description: Extracts a delimited substring from a string given an index. Requires a string of any length, a delimiter of length one character, and an index value from 1-256; returns the starting location and length of the substring. If the delimiter is null (an error), the substring length will be returned as -1. If the index value is greater than the number of delimited substrings, a null substring will be returned. Example: ST$="John Doe/15 Maple Rd/Hometown, CA 99199/(300) 111-1111" INDEX=2: DELIMITER$="/": CALL EXTRACT(ST$,DELIMITER$,INDEX,START,SLEN) PRINT MID$(ST$,START,SLEN) REM This will print the second substring (INDEX=2) of the string REM (ST$) delimited by "/" (DELIMITER$), which in this case will REM be "15 Maple Rd". Name: FINDFIRSTF Type: Disk / DOS Description: Given a filename (which may contain the wildcards "*" and "?", and a drive and path spec if you like), this searches the default (or specified) directory to find the first matching file. Further matches can be obtained through the FINDNEXTF routine (q.v.). If there is a match, ERCD will return zero, otherwise it will return a positive value (unless you entered a null filename, in which case ERCD will be -1 to flag an error). You can retrieve various information about the matched file via a number of supplementary functions: GETNAMEF to get the filename, GETATTRF to get the attribute (there's a page at the end of this document on file attributes), GETDATEF and GETTIMEF to get the date and time, and GETSIZEF to get the file size. You may specify a search attribute as well: 0 (zero) to match normal files, 2 to match hidden files, 4 for system files, and 16 for subdirectories. Attributes other than zero will return normal files as well as the specified type, and you can match on more than one kind of attribute (for instance, to get all kinds of files, you'd use an attribute of 22, or 2+4+16). You can read the volume label using an attribute of 8, which will return only the volume label... supposedly. In actual practice, the read-volume-label routine is not entirely reliable, so be sure to check the attribute of the matched file to make sure that it is in fact 8. This function can be used to duplicate the DOS directory command, or to allow filename wildcards in your program, among other things. Example: FIL$=FIL$+CHR$(0): CALL FINDFIRSTF(FIL$,ATTR,ERCD) IF ERCD THEN PRINT"No matching files" Name: FINDNEXTF Type: Disk / DOS Description: This is used after the FINDFIRSTF function (q.v.) in order to find further matching files. Example: CALL FINDNEXTF(ERCD) IF ERCD THEN PRINT"No more matching files" Name: GETATTRF Type: Disk / DOS Description: Returns the actual attribute of a file matched using FINDFIRSTF or FINDNEXTF. See the end of this document for information on file attributes. Example: REM use this AFTER calling FINDFIRSTF / FINDNEXTF to initialize REM the appropriate file information! CALL GETATTRF(ATTR) Name: GETDATEF Type: Disk / DOS Description: Returns the date associated with the file matched using FINDFIRSTF or FINDNEXTF. Example: CALL GETDATEF(MONTH,DAY,YEAR) Name: GETDOSV Type: Miscellaneous / DOS Description: Gets MS-DOS version. The major version is returned in the first para- meter, the minor version in the second (e.g., MS-DOS v. 2.11 would return MAJ = 2, MIN = 11). Example: CALL GETDOSV(MAJ,MIN) Name: GETDRV Type: Disk / DOS Description: Returns the letter of the default drive. The drive string must be at least one character long. Example: DRV$="x:" : CALL GETDRV(DRV$) Name: GETFATTR Type: Disk / DOS Description: Gets file attribute. See section on file attributes at the end of this manual. Example: FIL$ = FIL$ + CHR$(0): CALL GETFATTR(FIL$,ATR) Name: GETFDATE Type: Disk / DOS Description: GETFDATE returns the file creation date, that is, the date you see on a file when you get a DIRectory. The file name must be terminated with an ASCII NUL character. If there is an error, such as there being no such file, the month will be -1. Example: FIL$ = "TESTFILE.TXT" + CHR$(0) CALL GETFDATE(FIL$,MONTH,DAY,YEAR) Name: GETFTIME Type: Disk / DOS Description: This function complements GETFDATE, and returns the file creation time. The hour is in 24-hour (military) format, and will be returned as -1 if there is no such file or a bad file name. The seconds are rounded to the next lower even number, due to the DOS storage format. The file name must be terminated with an ASCII zero, or NUL character. Example: FIL$ = "ANYFILE.EXT" + CHR$(0) CALL GETFTIME(FIL$,HOUR,MINUTE,SECOND) Name: GETKEY Type: Keyboard / BIOS Description: Waits until one of a list of keys is pressed, and returns it. The key list (any length) should be uppercase, and if the length is null, the first key pressed will be returned. The key returned will be capitalized. The variable to return the key in must be at least one character long. This func- tion is designed for returning one of a menu of choices, for example. Example: GOODKEYS$="KEY LIST" . . KY$="x": CALL GETKEY(GOODKEYS$,KY$) Name: GETLINE Type: Video / ANY Description: Returns a selected line from a screen saved via SCRSAVE, with the trailing spaces removed. The line string must be at least 80 characters long. Example: DEFINT A-Z: OPTION BASE 1: DIM SCR(2000) WHERE=VARPTR(SCR(1)): CALL SCRSAVE(WHERE): CLS LINENR=10: LIN$=SPACE$(80): WHERE=VARPTR(SCR(1)) CALL GETLINE(WHERE,LINENR,LIN$,LLEN) PRINT"Line 10 was:": PRINT LEFT$(LIN$,LLEN) Name: GETNAMEF Type: Disk / DOS Description: Returns the filename of the file matched using FINDFIRSTF or FINDNEXTF. The FIL$ string must be initialized to at least 12 characters in length. The actual length of FIL$ will be returned in FLEN, which will be -1 if you didn't initialize FIL$ long enough. Note that the filename will not contain a drive or path spec. Example: FIL$ = SPACE$(12): CALL GETNAMEF(FIL$,FLEN): FIL$ = LEFT$(FIL$,FLEN) Name: GETSIZEF Type: Disk / DOS Description: Returns the size of the file matched via FINDFIRSTF or FINDNEXTF. Since the file size may be outside integer bounds, there is some additional code you will have to add which uses double-precision values (see the example). You can modify the example to use single-precision instead, but really large file sizes will then lapse into exponential notation. Example: CALL GETSIZEF(SIZELOW,SIZEHIGH): SIZELOW# = CDBL(SIZELOW) IF SIZELOW < 0 THEN SIZELOW# = SIZELOW# + 65536# FILESIZE# = SIZELOW# + CDBL(SIZEHIGH) * 65536# Name: GETSUB Type: Disk / DOS Description: Gets the default subdirectory. The subdirectory string must be 64 charac- ters long, and it is recommended that you set it to ASCII zeroes (the NUL character). The length of the subdirectory string is returned as an integer value. Note that the string will NOT be started by a backslash "\" character-- you should add one if appropriate. Example: SUB$ = STRING$(64,0) : CALL GETSUB(SUB$,SLEN) : SUB$ = "\" + LEFT$(SUB$,SLEN) Name: GETTIMEF Type: Disk / DOS Description: Returns the time associated with the file matched by FINDFIRSTF or FINDNEXTF. The hour is returned in military (24-hour) format. Example: CALL GETTIMEF(HOUR,MINUTE,SECOND) Name: INSCHR Type: Video / CLONE Description: Inserts a space at the specified screen location. The character previous- ly at that position and all characters to the right of it on the same screen line will be shifted right one space. Subject to the same limitations as DELCHR (q.v.). Example: COL = POS(0): ROW = CSRLIN: CALL INSCHR(ROW,COL): PRINT"*"; Name: KEYPRESS Type: Keyboard / BIOS Description: Tells you whether a key is waiting in the keyboard buffer (for use with INKEY$ routines, etc). KYHIT is set to -1 if a key is waiting, 0 otherwise. Example: 100 CALL KEYPRESS(KYHIT):IF KYHIT THEN KY$=INKEY$:GOTO 300 ELSE 100 Name: LOCASE Type: String / ANY Description: Converts a string to all lowercase. Leaves non-alphabetic characters untouched. String may be any length. Example: MSG$="THis IS a test OF tHe lowercase CONVERTER!" . . CALL LOCASE(MSG$) Name: LROTATE Type: String / ANY Description: Rotates the characters in a string left. That is, the leftmost character is removed, and tacked onto the end of the string. This is useful for rotating queues and for character-graphics animation. If the string is of length one or less, it is returned unchanged. Example: ST$ = "12345": CALL LROTATE(ST$) REM ST$ will end up being "23451" Name: MAKESUB Type: Disk / DOS Description: Makes a subdirectory. Parameters used are the same as in SETSUB. Example: TMP$ = SUB$+CHR$(0): CALL MAKESUB(TMP$,ERRCODE) IF ERRCODE THEN couldn't make subdir ELSE subdir created Name: MDELCHR Type: Video / BIOS Description: Deletes the character at the current cursor position. It obeys the window defined by MWINDOW. It's more compatible than DELCHR, but much slower. Note that this routine can be used to scroll a window left by doing an MDELCHR at the first location of each line to be scrolled. To scroll right, do the same using MINSCHR instead. Example: CALL MDELCHR Name: MINSCHR Type: Video / BIOS Description: Inserts a space at the current cursor position, obeying the window defined by MWINDOW. See notes at MDELCHR. Example: CALL MINSCHR Name: MPRINTC Type: Video / BIOS Description: Using this function, you can at last access device drivers such as ANSI.SYS. This is a video output function which goes through MS-DOS function calls. It prints a single character to the display. Advantages: allows use of ANSI.SYS and similar video drivers, and windowing via MWINDOW. Disadvantages: is slower and takes more memory that the usual PRINT statement. Example: CALL MPRINTC(CH$,COL,ROW): LOCATE ROW,COL Name: MPRINT Type: Video / BIOS Description: Same as MPRINTC (q.v.), only it allows you to send an entire string out to the display, rather than just a single character. Example: CALL MPRINT(ST$,COL,ROW): LOCATE ROW,COL Name: MULTIAND Type: String / ANY Description: This is a flexible function with many possible uses. Every character in a given string is ANDed with a value you supply. One thing this could be used for is translating Wordstar files to ASCII files, by using a bit mask (the value that will be ANDed with the character) of &H7F, which strips off the high bit of each character. The string may be any length; the bit mask is an integer, with only the low byte in use (value of 0-255). Example: ST$ = "" : FOR X=65 TO 70: ST$ = CHR$(X)+CHR$(X+128): NEXT : PRINT ST$ BITMASK = &H7F : CALL MULTIAND(ST$,BITMASK) : PRINT ST$ Name: MULTIOR Type: String / ANY Description: Does the exact opposite of MULTIAND-- instead of stripping off bits, it turns on bits. It ORs instead of ANDs. One possible use for this would be to encode a text string by ORing with 128, and later decoding by ANDing with 128. This would allow you to save the string to disk using text files, even if the string included control codes. It won't work right if the string has graphics characters (using ExtASCII codes, which are codes from 128-255) in it, though. The parameters are the same as for MULTIAND. Example: ST$ = "ABCDE": PRINT ST$: SETBITS = &H80 CALL MULTIOR(ST$,SETBITS): PRINT ST$ Name: MULTIXOR Type: String / ANY Description: An exclusive-or operation for strings. Bits in the string will be set only if they are set in the string byte or mask byte, but not in both of them. Note that this can be used as a "MULTINOT" function by using a mask of &HFF or 255. In this case, all bits are set in the mask, so the result of the XOR will be the same as a NOT operation on the string. Note that XORing a string with the same value twice will return the original string-- it can thus be used to encode and decode strings. Example: CALL MULTIXOR(ST$,MASK) Name: MWINDOW Type: Video / BIOS Description: Sets up a window for the MPRINT and MPRINTC routines. Windows are defined by their upper left corner and lower right corner. The default window is thus (0,0,80,24), which leaves out the bottom line (BASIC's status line). To use the full screen, call this routine with values (0,0,80,25). Note that the cursor should be positioned inside the window before using MPRINT/MPRINTC. Note also that windows should be defined to contain at least two rows. Example: LFTCOL = 20: TOPROW = 5: RTCOL = 60: BOTROW = 15 CALL MWINDOW(LFTCOL,TOPROW,RTCOL,BOTROW): LOCATE TOPROW,LFTCOL REM sets up a window in the middle of the screen REM of 40 cols by 10 rows. Name: QPRINT Type: Video / CLONE Description: This function bypasses the usual video routines, and prints a string directly on the screen, at a -much- higher speed than the normal PRINT state- ment does. It also contains a built-in LOCATE statement, and doesn't affect the cursor position. The string may be any length. Control characters will show up as graphics characters instead of having their original functions, and the color/attributes used will be the ones already on the screen. This works for 40 or 80 column displays, monochrome or color. Display page zero will be used (if applicable). Note: this function appeared in BYTE magazine in a different form, and has been modified several times since. It is not solely my creation. See the source code for further information. Example: ST$ = "This is a test of fast screen printing" ROW = 10: COL = 20 CALL QPRINT(ST$,ROW,COL) Name: READBITF Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Reads a word from an array of arbitrary bit length, given an index. The words in the array may be made of one to eight bits. Indices begin at zero and are limited by integer range. That is up to &HFFFF, subject to memory constraints-- the index is taken to be an unsigned integer value. This func- tion allows very memory-efficient storage of arrays of numbers, provided that the numbers are within a restricted range. The simulated array is held within a normal integer array, which must be dimensioned large enough to hold all of the arbitrary-length words (will depend on bits per word and number of words desired). Example: OPTION BASE 0: DEFINT A-Z: DIM INTARRAY(50): BITFSIZE=8 . . ARRAYLOC=VARPTR(INTARRAY(0)) CALL READBITF(ARRAYLOC,NDX,BITFSIZE,VALUE) REM Returns a value from the array location indexed by NDX, REM where the array is composed of bytes (8-bit words). REM See the disk file BITFTEST.BAS in the \SOURCE subdirectory REM for a working example program (compiled BASIC only!!!) Name: RECOLOR Type: Video / CLONE Description: Takes everything on the screen that's of a given color and changes its color to whatever you like. This can be used for special effects, or just to change the screen color without having to clear the screen. This will work on either mono or color monitors, in text modes only. The color attribute must be defined from the foreground and background colors using the formula shown below. Example: OLDCOLR = (BGNDCOLR AND 7)*16 + FGNDCOLR NEWCOLR = (NEWBGNDCOLR AND 7)*16 + NEWFGNDCOLR CALL RECOLOR(OLDCOLR,NEWCOLR) Name: REVERSE Type: String / ANY Description: Reverses the order of characters in a string. This can be combined with the XLATE function and a judiciously-designed translation table to provide mirror images of strings for character-graphics-based displays. Example: MSG$="This is a test": CALL REVERSE(MSG$): PRINT MSG$ Name: RROTATE Type: String / ANY Description: Rotates the characters in a string right. This is the same as LROTATE, only in reverse. See LROTATE for further details. Example: ST$ = "12345": CALL RROTATE(ST$) REM ST$ will end up being "51234" Name: SCROLL Type: Video / BIOS Description: Scrolls any selected portion of the screen as many times as you like (1-255, or use 0 to clear that part of the screen entirely). Five arguments give coordinates (LEFTCOL,TOPROW) of the upper left corner of the area to be scrolled, coordinates (RTCOL,BOTROW) of the lower right corner of the area to be scrolled, and the number of times to scroll the area. This routine may be used to create windows. Note that RTCOL must be at least one greater than LEFTCOL (no single-line scrolling, obviously). Parameters are not checked, so be careful not to use illegal screen coordinates. Example: CALL SCROLL(LEFTCOL,TOPROW,RTCOL,BOTROW,NUMLINES) Name: SCRREST Type: Video / CLONE Description: Restores the screen display from an image put into an array by SCRSAVE. Same requirements and limitations of SCRSAVE. Example: WHERE = VARPTR(SCR(1)): CALL SCRREST(WHERE): LOCATE OLDROW,OLDCOL Name: SCRSAVE Type: Video / CLONE Description: Stores the current screen display (page 0 only) in an array. Text modes only. Requires an array of 4000 bytes, and an integer which points to the location of the array. The cursor position is not saved. Example: DEFINT A-Z: OPTION BASE 1: DIM SCR(2000) . . WHERE = VARPTR(SCR(1)): CALL SCRSAVE(WHERE) OLDCOL = POS(0) : OLDROW = CSRLIN REM Dim of 2000 w/ option base 1 gives us 2000 integers, each of REM which occupy two bytes, giving 4000 bytes of storage space. REM Note: you can store more than one screen in an array by REM dimensioning it large enough. Use WHERE=VARPTR(SCR(2001)) REM to locate the second screen, and so forth. Name: SCRRESTP, SCRRESTPD, SCRSAVEP, SCRSAVEPD Type: Video / CLONE Description: These functions are variations of SCRREST and SCRSAVE. All of them allow specification of a page number, for color monitors. They will save or restore text to a given page. When used with monochrome monitors, the page specifica- tion should always be zero. SCRRESTPD and SCRSAVEPD write directly to the screen at high speed. This will cause "snow" if you have an old or poorly designed color display adapter and are writing to the active screen page. Under those conditions, you should use SCRRESTP/SCRSAVEP or SCRREST/SCRSAVE. Example: WHERE = VARPTR(SCR(1)) : SCRNPAGE = 0 CALL SCRRESTP(WHERE,SCRNPAGE) : LOCATE OLDROW,OLDCOL Name: SETCOMM Type: Miscellaneous / CLONE Description: Sets communications parameters on an opened communications device. This allows you to set the baud rate higher than BASIC normally allows, and to change the comm parameters without having to close the comm device. Note that BASIC currently limits access to comm ports one and two. You can set parms on ports 1-4 using SETCOMM, however. Hopefully a future release of ADVBAS will allow you to use the other two ports if you have them. Why is it bad to have to close the comm device? Because that will make the DTR signal drop, which will cause many modems to drop the carrier and lose your connection. In fact, for Hayes-type modems, that's a much more reliable way to end communications than using the ATH modem command. If you try to set a comm port which does not exist, the port number will be set to zero after the call. If you give illegal parameters elsewhere, the port will be set to a default of 300 baud, Even parity, Seven-bit words, and One stop bit (any of the parms which were legal will be used). Example: OPEN"R",1,"COM1:300,E,7,1,RS,CS,DS" COMMPORT = 1 : BPS = 6 : PARITY = 0 : WORDLENGTH = 8 : STOPBITS = 1 CALL SETCOMM(COMMPORT,BPS,PARITY,WORDLENGTH,STOPBITS) REM sets the port to 19200 baud, No parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit. Settings: COMMPORT may be 1 - 2, and will be returned as 0 if the specified port doesn't exist. Four ports are allowed, but you can only access 1 and 2. BPS ("baud rate") is specified by a number from 0 - 7. Use 0 for 300 bps, 1 for 600, 2 for 1200, 3 for 2400, 4 for 4800, 5 for 9600, 6 for 19200, and 7 for 38400 bps. Whether you can actually get higher speeds will depend on the quality of your communications port. PARITY is a number 0-2. Use 0 for None, 1 for Odd, and 2 for Even. WORDLENGTH is 7 or 8, and STOPBITS is 1 or 2, just as you'd expect. Name: SETDRV Type: Disk / DOS Description: Sets the default drive. The drive string must be at least one character long, and start with a letter specifying a disk drive. Example: DRV$="B:" . . CALL SETDRV(DRV$) Name: SETFATTR Type: Disk / DOS Description: Sets file attribute. See section on file attributes at the end of this manual. Example: FIL$ = FIL$ + CHR$(0): CALL SETFATTR(FIL$,ATTR) Name: SETFTD Type: Disk / DOS Description: Sets file time/date stamp. The filename must be terminated with a NUL character. The year may be either a four digit or two digit number (e.g., may be either 1986 or just 86). DOS will round the seconds value off to the next lower even number. If there is a problem with the filename, the month will be returned as -1. Example: FIL$=FIL$+CHR$(0) CALL SETFTD(FIL$,MONTH,DAY,YEAR,HOUR,MINUTE,SECOND) Name: SETMATI Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Sets the first SIZ elements of an integer array to a given (scalar) value, INITVAL. It will work on multi-dimensional arrays, in which case the leftmost dimension increments first. See examples for clarification. Example: OPTION BASE 0: DEFINT A-Z: DIM BANANA(9) SIZ=10: INITVAL=-3: ARLOC=VARPTR(BANANA(0)) CALL SETMATI(ARLOC,SIZ,INITVAL) REM we have just initialized all 10 elements of the array to REM the value -3. Example: OPTION BASE 1: DEFINT A-Z: DIM FOO(3,5) SIZ=5: INITVAL=20000: ARLOC=VARPTR(FOO(1,1)) CALL SETMATI(ARLOC,SIZ,INITVAL) REM we have just set the first five elements of the array to REM 20000. The first five elements are FOO(1,1), FOO(2,1), REM FOO(3,1), FOO(1,2), FOO(2,2). If you wanted to initialize REM the whole array to 20000, you'd set SIZ=3*5 for OPTION BASE 1, REM or SIZ=(3+1)*(5+1) for OPTION BASE 0, in this case... REM By changing the first element (in the ARLOC assignment), you REM can set any part of the array, not just the first elements. REM See SCRSAVE/SCRREST if you need to clear up that last point. Name: SETSUB Type: Disk / DOS Description: Sets the default subdirectory. The subdirectory string must be at least one character in length, since it must be terminated by a NUL character. A negative one will be returned if there was a problem setting to the given subdirectory (either it's not available on the default drive, or a bad name, most likely); else zero will be returned if all went well. Example: TMP$ = SUB$+CHR$(0): CALL SETSUB(TMP$,ERCD) : IF ERCD THEN bad subdir ELSE new default subdir selected Name: SOUNDEX Type: String / ANY Description: This routine returns the Soundex code for a string you give it. I'm not sure who invented Soundex, but it's pretty handy. The Soundex routine takes a word and returns a string which represents what the word sounds like in an abstract format. Similar-sounding words can thus be identified easily by your program after Soundex processing. This can be useful in applications where a person is not sure of the exact spelling of a word/name/city, etc. To use, put the word in WORD$, initialize the return string SCODE$ to the same length as WORD$, and execute the routine. SLEN% will return the actual length of SCODE$, which may vary from zero to the length of WORD$. If SCODE$ is not as long as WORD$ when the routine is called, SLEN% will be returned as -1 to flag an error. The Soundex code is returned as a series of digits in SCODE$, although you can represent this any way you choose in your program. Example: WORD$ = "AnyWord": SCODE$=WORD$: CALL SOUNDEX(WORD$,SCODE$,SLEN) PRINT"The Soundex code for ";WORD$;" is ";LEFT$(SCODE$,SLEN);"." REM Try this routine a few times to get a feel for it. Name: STRIP Type: String / ANY Description: Strips all occurrences of a given target character from a given source string. The source string may be any length; the target string must be at least one character. The new length of the source string will be returned as an integer, since external routines may not change the length of BASIC strings directly. Example: MSG$="12 - 2 = 10" . . CH$=" ": CALL STRIP(MSG$,CH$,MLEN): MSG$ = LEFT$(MSG$,MLEN) Name: STRIPRANGE Type: String / ANY Description: Strips all characters within a given range out of a source string. The source string may be any length. The new length of the source string will be returned as an integer. Example: MSG$="ALL uppercase letters will be G-O-N-E gone" LO = ASC("A"): HI = ASC("Z") CALL STRIPRANGE(MSG$,LO,HI,MLEN): PRINT LEFT$(MSG$,MLEN) Name: UPCASE Type: String / ANY Description: Converts a string to all uppercase. Leaves non-alphabetic characters untouched. String may be any length. Example: MSG$="Four score and seven years ago" . . CALL UPCASE(MSG$) Name: WEEKDAY Type: Miscellaneous / DOS Description: Returns an integer from 1 - 7 indicating the day of the week, Sunday through Saturday. The example routine turns this integer into the week day. Example: CALL WEEKDAY(DAY%): DLEN% = VAL(MID$("3346535",DAY,1)) DLOC% = ASC(MID$("ADGKQVY",DAY%)): REM This string MUST be uppercase! PRINT"Today is ";MID$("SunMonTuesWednesThursFriSatur",DLOC%,DLEN%);"day." Name: WRITEBITF Type: Miscellaneous / ANY Description: Allows a value to be written into a given location of a simulated array of words of arbitrary bit length (1-8 bits per word). This goes with the READBITF function above. The "BITF" is for Bit Field, because the functions work by creating fields of arbitrary bit length within what is actually an integer array. Example: CALL WRITEBITF(ARRAYLOC,INDEX,BITFSIZE,VALUE) REM See the READBITF function, and check out the BITFTEST.BAS if you REM have the ADVBAS contributor disk, to better idea of what these REM functions do. This function is not for novice programmers! Name: XLATE Type: String / ANY Description: This function translates a string, character by character, using a table you supply. The character's ASCII value is used as the index to the table, and the value at that location replaces the character's current value. The character may be one byte in length, in which case it will be translated, or zero bytes, in which case nothing will happen. The translation string must be 256 bytes long (remember, strings may be longer than 255 bytes in Compiled BASIC, so this is ok). Example: XLT$ = "": FOR X=0 TO 255: XLT$=XLT$+CHR$(X): NEXT MID$(XLT$,1,5) = "ABCDE": CH$ = CHR$(0) CALL XLATE$(CH$,XLT$): PRINT CH$ REM CH$ ends up "A", since the start of the table + zero bytes REM contains "A". We add zero bytes, because CH$ was REM originally equal to CHR$(0). Name: XMPRINT Type: Video / BIOS Description: This routine combines the XLATE and MPRINTC functions. It takes a char- acter, runs it through a translation table, and prints it to the screen unless the translated value is NUL (ASCII zero). If it's NUL, no printing takes place. MS-DOS calls are used for printing, so ANSI.SYS will work. See the XLATE and MPRINTC routines for further information. Example: CALL XMPRINT(CH$,XLATE$,COL,ROW): LOCATE ROW,COL Name: XQPRINT Type: Video / CLONE Description: This function is an extended version of QPRINT. It is more flexible, and only a trifle slower. XQPRINT has two advantages over QPRINT: it allows you to choose a color/attribute to use, and lets you choose a display page (color/graphics adapters only!). The attribute ATTR must be set up using a special formula, and the display page is limited to a range of 0-3. This means that in 40-column mode, the display page used will actually be twice the argument you give the function, giving you access to 40-column display pages 0,2,4, and 6. Or so the theory goes. The page argument is ignored for monochrome adapters. Example: ST$ = "This is a test of fast screen printing" ROW = 10: COL = 20: PAGE = 0 ATTR = (BACKGROUNDCOLOR AND 7) * 16 + FOREGROUNDCOLOR CALL XQPRINT(ST$,ROW,COL,ATTR,PAGE) Name: XQPRINTD Type: Video / CLONE Description: This function is identical to XQPRINT, with the one exception that it writes directly to the screen. That makes it even faster than XQPRINT, but means that it will cause snow on some color monitors when printing to the active display page. File Attributes Every file has an "attribute byte" which tells something about the file. This can be modified to some extent. For instance, any file can be made "hidden", in which case it will be invisible; this includes subdirectories, which can still be used even if you can't see that they're there. Some kinds of changes are not possible, however: you can't change a subdirectory into a normal file, for example. Attribute Code Description Normal 00h A normal file. Read-only 01h File can be renamed, but not killed or modified. Hidden 02h File disappears from directory, can't be opened. System 04h Like HIDDEN. Used for system (DOS, BIOS) files. Volume-ID 08h A disk's volume id. Can only be one, in root dir. Directory 10h Subdirectory. Can't be changed to another attribute. Archive 20h Usually set. Sometimes used for hard disk backup. Combinations of the codes are possible, as I've mentioned. For instance, a hidden subdirectory would have a code of 12h. A normal file, because of the archive bit, might show up as either 00h or 20h... and so on. Note this is all in hexadecimal, hence the "h" postfix. Convert to decimal form as necessary when calling routines which use the file attribute. BASIC has functions to handle this for you if you don't understand hex-- see the HEX$ function and &H prefix in your BASIC manual. BASCOM Bugs (info unrelated to ADVBAS!) Following are a few notes on BASIC Compiler bugs that I've run into. These are not caused by the ADVBAS routines, and have no relation to them. I just thought it might be helpful if I mentioned them, since anyone reading this evidently has, or is considering buying, a BASIC Compiler. IBM BASIC Compiler v1.00 (may well not apply to the current version 2): Illegal file names return a "Bad file number" error, rather than the expected "Bad file name". The control codes to move the cursor left and right work fine, but not the ones to move it up and down, which do nothing. Register BP is not saved by the compiler when it does a CALL. This must be done by the called routine, since this register is used by the compiler for vital information. The /E compiler option seems to introduce errors into some programs which crash them by freezing the computer or giving a "String Space Corrupt" error. If this happens, I've found you can fix it by adding the /D option, or using /X instead of /E. The latter method cuts down heavily on available program space, so it may not be as good as the former. Both add a fair bit to the EXE program size. It's a hard life... This problem may also cause programs compiled without the /O option to lock up, which can't be fixed by using /X or /D. Use the /O option if this happens. BASCOM Bugs Microsoft QuickBASIC Compiler v1.00: If there is not enough memory when you try to execute the SHELL command, your program will crash. There is no way to avoid this using error trapping, because the memory reallocation will have fried the stack. So even if you trap the OUT OF MEMORY error, you'll still crash with a RETURN WITHOUT GOSUB if you try to return from a subroutine, or a STRING SPACE CORRUPT error when the compiler gets around to doing a string garbage collection. Bad news. It would be nice if it tried to check to see if there was enough memory first. The error STRING FORMULA TOO COMPLEX appears erratically in some programs, even with the simplest possible string formulae (like V$="TEST"). This only seems to happen in programs which do a lot of string manipulation, which suggests that the compiler has a flaky and is doing something wrong with gar- bage collection, or something like that. There seems to be no way to get around this bug either-- also bad news. If you have this problem, I recommend that you complain vociferously to Microsoft! Microsoft QuickBASIC Compiler v1.02: I haven't had a chance to test it out much yet, but they claim that this release solves the SHELL crash problem. Also, more control characters are now printed out just like BASICA. Many miscellaneous problems have been fixed... But not the infamous STRING FORMULA TOO COMPLEX error. Sigh. BASCOM Bugs Microsoft QuickBASIC Compiler v2.00: Well, this release fixes yet more compiler bugs. The STRING FORMULA TOO COMPLEX error lives on, however. I'm going to have to track that down and send in an example program to Microsoft, I guess, as soon as I can find the time. A few new functions have been added, but nothing particularly use- ful. The new programming environment (a la Turbo Pascal) is poorly designed for an environment which is evidently supposed to mimic the "intuitive" feel of the MacIntosh. The editor really isn't adequate, and suffers from a number of irritating bugs. The compiler is now a massive 180K, and takes forever to load. The "user library" feature is fairly worthless-- you can only build libraries of BASIC subprograms with it, not assembly code; you are required to list all the names of all the subprograms in a library whenever you modify the library; and the user library is in its own unique format, so if you had hoped to be able to link it with other languages, forget it. The one thing that is good about the new version of the compiler is the manual, which is really excellent-- enormous, clear and detailed. Screen paging is doesn't work. Assembly routines (like ADVBAS) can't be used in the normal mode (they generate "UNRESOLVED SUBPROGRAM" errors). See the notes at the beginning of this document for how to get around that problem. The editor has a defective search-and-replace function, adds blank lines at the end of the program under certain conditions, and allows you to put some control characters directly into the program (which gives the compiler odd problems). When entering the filename, you have to use Shift-Backspace instead of the Delete key to delete characters. The use of TAB, SPACE, RETURN, and the arrow keys when making a choice on the menus is arbitrary, weird, and counterintuitive in the extreme. If you use the old method of compiling, bypassing the new environment, you no longer get any error messages, just an error count. You can't get a source listing any more, either. Wish list for QuickBASIC: Recursive functions. No bugs! Production of code which can be linked with other languages. A smaller compiler (take out the new environment and editor, please, and put the error messages back!). An error trapping function that returns the label of the routine where the error took place (like ERL, only for labels). Communications functions which don't produce errors whenever you get the slightest bit of line noise. BASIC Bugs This is a peculiar one... it seems that BASIC can create files having names which contain blank spaces. This is a problem, because DOS considers the space to be a delimiter, and thus cannot handle these files. Such files will not be listed correctly in the directory, and will be impossible to manipu- late from DOS (can't read, delete, or otherwise handle the file). So, be careful to screen out spaces when creating files from BASIC! This caveat also applies to subdirectories, including those created with the MAKESUB routine of ADVBAS. Call for help: If you find any other bugs in any IBM/Microsoft BASIC compiler, or in ADVBAS for that matter, please let me know. If I can't fix it, at least I can warn people!