Amiga MA Magazine 1998 #6

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+-----------+ | ACE v2.37 | +-----------+ +--------------------------------+ | Command and Function Reference | +--------------------------------+ ------------ Introduction ------------ This document consists of a description of currently implemented commands and functions. As with AmigaBASIC, the case of commands and functions is of no consequence. NOTES: - [] means that a parameter or command component is optional. - <> surround literals, names and expressions. - .. implies that statements are expected to follow. - Commands and functions marked with an asterix are found only in ACE, not AmigaBASIC. - Standard trigonometric functions take their arguments in radians. - EOS = end-of-string character (ASCII 0). - MAXSTRINGLEN currently equals 1024. The last character in a string is EOS, so if you want a string which holds 1024 characters, you need a 1025 byte string (see STRING command). - For boolean operators such as AND,OR,IMP etc the values T and F (TRUE and FALSE) refer to -1 and 0 respectively. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABS - syntax: ABS(n) - Returns the absolute value of n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADDRESS * - syntax: ADDRESS <identifier>[,..] - Declares and initialises one or more variables of type address. In fact, this data type is synonymous with the long integer (see LONGINT) data type. Its main purpose is to make clear just what sort of data is going to be used. This is especially useful when passing addresses as parameters to subprograms. - See also SUB, STRUCT. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALLOC * - syntax: ALLOC(<bytes>[,<memory-type>]) - This is ACE's hassle-free memory allocator. - You can call this function to get the start address of a newly allocated block of memory at least <bytes> bytes in size. - The <memory-type> argument can be one of the following: 0 = CHIP memory 1 = FAST memory 2 = PUBLIC memory 3 = CLEARED CHIP memory 4 = CLEARED FAST memory 5 = CLEARED PUBLIC memory 6 = ANY suitable memory (MEMF_ANY) 7 = ANY suitable cleared memory - If a value outside this range is specified or this parameter is omitted, the result is identical to having specified a <memory-type> of 7. Note that in ACE v2.0 the default was CLEARED PUBLIC memory. - Specifying ANY (6,7) allows the operating system to select the best available memory, so specify a <memory-type> of 6 or 7 for general use and CHIP memory for sound samples or any other data which must be accessible by the co-processors. - If the requested block of memory can't be allocated for whatever reason (eg. memory is too fragmented), ALLOC returns zero. - CLEARED memory is filled with zeros. - The main benefit of ALLOC is that it keeps a record of memory allocations, freeing all memory allocated via it at the end of a program run. - ALLOC will free allocated memory even if a program aborts due to a ctrl-c break or an error (except where a GURU results). - Use of ALLOC assumes that you know what you're doing with memory and why you want a chunk of it. - For more information about memory allocation on the Amiga, see the Exec/Intuition autodocs re: AllocMem()/FreeMem() and AllocRemember()/FreeRemember(). See also the manual "RKM: Libraries". - See also CLEAR ALLOC. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AND - Boolean operator: X AND Y. X Y Out ----------- T T T T F F F T F F F F -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARG$ * - syntax: ARG$(n) where n=0..ARGCOUNT. - Returns the nth command line argument as a string. - If n=0 the name of the command is returned. - Note that ARG$ only works for CLI/Shell launched programs. See ace.doc for details about how to access Workbench arguments. - See also ARGCOUNT. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARGCOUNT * - Returns the number of command line arguments. - See also ace.doc re: Workbench arguments. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AREA - syntax: AREA [STEP](x,y) - Functions indentically to AmigaBASIC's AREA command. - Defines a set of up to 20 points to be joined into a polygon and filled by AREAFILL. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AREAFILL - syntax: AREAFILL [mode] - Same as AmigaBASIC's AREAFILL command. - The optional mode can be 0 or 1: 0 = fill polygon with current pattern and foreground color. 1 = fill polygon with current pattern but inverse of foreground color (max-color-id - fdgnd-color-id). - See also PATTERN command. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASC - syntax: ASC(X$) - Returns the ASCII code of the first character in X$. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASSEM * - syntax: ASSEM <line of assembly code> <line of assembly code> . . END ASSEM - This allows for the inline inclusion of assembly source code into the A68K file generated by ACE. - ACE does not attempt to check the correctness of the inline code, leaving the task of assembly up to A68K. - If you use this facility, it is assumed that you know what you are doing. - For correct handling of the assembly source lines, do not place ASSEM or END ASSEM on the same line as any of the code you wish to include. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ATN - syntax: ATN(n) - Returns the arctangent of n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACK * - syntax: BACK n - Moves the turtle back n steps. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEEP - Issues a brief pulse from the speaker. - BEEP doesn't flash the screen as it does in AmigaBASIC. - This command is useful for alerting the user to an error or other important event. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEVELBOX * - syntax: BEVELBOX (x1,y1)-(x2,y2),style - This command renders a Wb 2.x/3.0 style 3D bevel-box according to the specified rectangle and style. - The style parameter can take on the following values: Style Bevel-Box ----- --------- 1 RAISED 2 RECESSED 3 STRING-GADGET STYLE - The style parameter will have different results depending upon the combination of foreground and background colours. The above styles hold true for the standard Workbench 2.x colours. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIN$ * - syntax: BIN$(n) - Returns a string containing the binary equivalent of n. - If n is a single-precision value, ACE coerces it to integer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BREAK - syntax: BREAK ON|OFF|STOP - These commands are used for enabling, disabling and suspending ON BREAK event trapping. - See the Event Trapping section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL - Passes control to a user-defined subprogram, shared library function, external function, or user-defined machine code routine. - Subprogram CALLs can be recursive in ACE. - See also sections on subprograms, shared library access, external functions and machine code calls in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CASE * - This is ACE's version of the CASE statement and is different from the Pascal CASE and C switch statements. - The syntax is: CASE <expression> : <statement> . . [<expression> : <statement>] END CASE where <expression> can be any legal expression ranging from a constant to a relational or mathematical expression. - The expression is used as a boolean such that 0 is false and any non-zero value is true. - Each expression is evaluated until one is found to be true. The corresponding statement is then executed. - The statement can consist of a single legal ACE statement (including block IF and loops) or a multi-statement. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHDIR - syntax: CHDIR <dirname> where <dirname> is a string corresponding to the name of a directory. - If <dirname> is a legitimate directory and is accessible from the current directory, it will become the new current directory. - In short, this is ACE's equivalent of the AmigaDOS "cd" command, the only difference being that the path change is not reflected in the shell prompt (if the program is run from the shell). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHR$ - syntax: CHR$(n) - Returns a string consisting of a single character with the ASCII value n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CINT - syntax: CINT(n) - Converts n to a signed short integer by rounding the fractional portion. - When the fractional portion is exactly .5, CINT *always* rounds up in ACE, whereas in AmigaBASIC if the integer portion is even, CINT rounds down, and up if the integer portion is odd. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CIRCLE - syntax: CIRCLE (x,y),radius[,color-id,start,end,aspect] - Start and end angles are specified in DEGREES *not* radians because this is probably more useful when thinking about circles. (Note: this may be changed to radians in future). - If a whole ellipse is to be drawn, the graphics library DrawEllipse() function is used. However, if the start angle is not 0 or the end angle is not 359 (these are the defaults when not specified), a different routine is used. The latter is quite slow and may well be changed in a future release of ACE. - The default ASPECT is .44 as in AmigaBASIC. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLEAR ALLOC * - syntax: CLEAR ALLOC - Frees all memory allocated by calls to ALLOC. - Subsequent use of ALLOC is permitted. - This allows for a more intelligent use of memory allocation, especially when memory is tight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLNG - syntax: CLNG(n) - Converts n to a signed long integer by rounding the fractional portion. - When the fractional portion is exactly .5, CLNG *always* rounds up in ACE, whereas in AmigaBASIC if the integer portion is even, CLNG rounds down, and up if the integer portion is odd. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLOSE - syntax: CLOSE [#]filenumber[,[#]filenumber..] where filenumber represents an open file. - This command closes at least one open file. - Note that in ACE, CLOSE must be followed by at least one filenumber, unlike AmigaBASIC. - See section on files in ace.doc. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLS - Clears the current output window or screen and sets the pen position to the upper left corner. - CLS does not affect any other screens or windows except the one which is currently active. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COLOR - syntax: color fgnd-id[,bgnd-id] - Changes the foreground and/or background color to fgnd-id and bgnd-id respectively. - Note that in ACE, you can change just the foreground color, both the foreground and background colors, but not the background color alone. This may be changed in a future revision. - The PALETTE command is used to change the colors corresponding to given color-ids. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONST * - syntax: CONST <ident> = [+|-]<constant>[,..] where <constant> is a signed numeric constant. - Defines a named numeric constant or constants, the type being *unaffected* by the the DEFxxx directives or type (%&!#$) suffixes. All constant definitions are GLOBAL. - A number of definitions can be separated by commas. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COS - syntax: COS(n) - Returns the cosine of n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSNG - syntax: CSNG(n) - Converts n to a single-precision value. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSRLIN - Returns the print line in the current user-defined screen or window. - CSRLIN and POS have no meaning in a CLI/shell and will return 0 if used when a CLI/shell is the current output window. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CSTR * - syntax: CSTR(<address>) - Coerces a long integer address into a string. - This is intended for taking an allocated area of memory and using it as a string of characters. Be aware that this memory block must be NULL terminated. - A typical use for CSTR is something like this: x$=CSTR(addr&) - The maximum string length of MAXSTRINGLEN bytes in some functions still applies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DATA - syntax: DATA [numeric-constant | string-constant][,..] - Stores numeric and/or string constants into a global data list to be accessed by the READ statement. - DATA statements may be located anywhere in a program and are non-executable. - Strings need only be enclosed in quotes if they contain commas, spaces or colons or other non-identifier characters. - In ACE, all numbers from DATA statements are currently stored as single-precision values with a possible loss of accuracy if LARGE long integers are originally specified. This may be rectified in a future revision. Thus far however, I have not had problems because of it. In order to overcome this, do the following: READ X$ X&=LONGINT(X$) DATA "123456789" - In the above example, the BASIC function VAL is substituted with LONGINT because the former always returns a single precision value which is what we are trying to avoid, while the latter extracts a long integer from a string. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DATE$ - Returns the current system date as a ten-character string of the format: mm-dd-yyyy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DAY * - Returns the day of the week as an integer from 0..6, where 0=Sunday and 6=Saturday. - The value returned by DAY reflects the last call to DATE$ and is otherwise undefined. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DECLARE - This has four uses in ACE: 1. DECLARE FUNCTION [<type>] <func-name>[%&!#$][(param-list)] LIBRARY [<lib-name>] (see section on shared library functions in ace.doc) 2. DECLARE FUNCTION [<type>] <func-name>[%&!#$][(param-list)] EXTERNAL which declares an external function. See also EXTERNAL command. (see section on External References in ace.doc) 3. DECLARE SUB [<type>] subprogram-name[(param-list)] [EXTERNAL] which is used for forward SUB declarations. If the EXTERNAL keyword is used the subprogram is expected to be defined in another ACE module. The reference will be resolved at link time. (see "Creating & using ACE subprogram modules" in ace.doc) In 1,2 and 3 above, <type> may be one of the following: ADDRESS,LONGINT,SHORTINT,SINGLE,STRING while param-list consists of comma-separated identifiers each optionally preceded by one of the above type specifiers. 4. DECLARE STRUCT <type> [*] <ident1> [,[*] <identN>..] where a structure variable of type <struct-type> is created. If "*" precedes the variable identifier, a pointer to the structure is created, otherwise a BSS object is allocated. In both cases, "identN" holds the start address of the structure. In the latter case, the address is resolved at load time while in the former, the address is allocated at run time (eg: with ALLOC). - Only the first usage is supported by AmigaBASIC (but without type specifier keywords). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEF FN - syntax: DEF [FN]funcname[!#%&$] [(param-list)] [EXTERNAL] = <expr> - As an extension to this syntax, in ACE it is also possible to follow the DEF keyword with one of the following: ADDRESS,LONGINT,SHORTINT,SINGLE,STRING - These keywords may also precede each item in the parameter list. - This command provides the simple defined function capability found in many BASICs. - The parameters are passed by value and are combined in the expression on the right hand side of the "=" to yield a function return value. - Like a subprogram, a defined function in ACE doesn't have access to global variables. Unlike the former, DEF FNs cannot use SHARED to get around this. In other words, if the function needs to use a particular value, you must pass it to the function via the parameter list. If a variable is defined in the expression (just by being used) its value will be local to the function (and unknown). - The function may only be invoked as part of an expression, eg: DEF SEC(x)=1/COS(x) PRINT SEC(12) defines and invokes the secant function which can then be used in the same way as other built-in functions (eg: COS). - Note from the above that the "FN" prefix is optional in ACE. If used, there must be no spaces between "FN" and the function name. - The fact that subprograms (SUBs) in ACE have return values and so can be treated as functions obviates the need for DEF FN to some extent, but the shorter definition may be considered better in some cases. Contrast the above definition with the following: SUB SEC(x) SEC=1/COS(x) END SUB - A slightly different example is: DEF ADDRESS chipmem(bytes&) = ALLOC(bytes&,0) which when invoked would return the start address of a block of CHIP memory. - Once a function has been defined, you cannot redefine it (AmigaBASIC allows this) in the same program. - If the optional EXTERNAL keyword is used, the function will be externally visible to other modules. See ace.doc section "Creating & using ACE subprogram modules". - See the file ACEinclude:MathFunc.h for examples of defined functions (taken from Appendix E of the AmigaBASIC Manual). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEFxxx - syntax: DEFxxx <letter> | _ [-<letter> | _] [, ..] - The DEFxxx commands (DEFINT,DEFLNG,DEFSNG,DEFDBL,DEFSTR) are global data type directives which affect data objects in both the main program and subprograms. - For example: DEFLNG a-z,_ declares all data objects to be of type LONGINT unless overridden by another DEFxxx directive, variable declaration or trailing character (%&!#$). - DEFDBL currently defaults to single-precision since double-precision floating-point is not yet supported by ACE. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIM - syntax: DIM [<type>]<name>(<i>[,..]) [SIZE <n>] [ADDRESS <addr>][,..] where <type> may be one of the following: ADDRESS,LONGINT,SHORTINT,SINGLE,STRING - ACE requires that _all_ arrays be dimensioned before use. - For a subscript range of 0..n, you must DIMension an array with an index of n. - Up to 255 dimensions can be specified with up to 32767 elements per dimension. On a 3 Mb machine, around 11 dimensions is the practical limit. - Each dimension must be specified as a short integer constant (literal or defined). - The SIZE option is for the specification of string element length other than the default MAXSTRINGLEN value. - The ADDRESS option allows you to specify some arbitrarily allocated area of memory for the array space. - Both options (SIZE and ADDRESS) may be used together in DIM. This is not so for simple (string) variables where only one or the other may be used (see STRING command). When used in DIM, the SIZE option specifies how big each string element is to be. - SHARED is not an option and ACE arrays are shared in the same way as variables. See "Subprograms" in ace.doc. - Arrays may be dynamically allocated in ACE, eg: CONST STRSIZE=80 myStrArrayAddr& = ALLOC(numlines*STRSIZE) IF myStrArrayAddr& = 0& THEN STOP DIM wds$(1) SIZE STRSIZE ADDRESS myStrArrayAddr& This will allocate space for an array of numlines strings, each 80 bytes in length. A single array element is specified just to keep ACE happy, but since there is no array range checking, and the ADDRESS option has been used, the number of elements in the array is in reality numlines (a variable containing say, the number of lines in a file). Note that this means that you will be able to access elements from 0..numlines-1. If you want 0..numlines - or even 1..numlines - then the ALLOC line must read: myStrArrayAddr& = ALLOC((numlines+1)*STRSIZE) Here's a more complex example, showing how to dynamically allocate space for a 2D array: rangeArray& = ALLOC((N+1) * (SIZEOF(SHORTINT)*(3+1))) IF rangeArray& = 0 THEN STOP DIM range%(1,3) ADDRESS rangeArray& The first index is just to keep ACE happy. Space is allocated via ALLOC and the really critical thing here is the "3" indicating how many columns in the table (as it were) - 0 to 3 - to ensure correct array element calculations. Since ACE does no run-time array bounds checking, you can specify range%(N,M) where N>=0 and M>=0 and M<=3. The zeroth index is the reason why we need the +1 in two places in the above ALLOC call. See also ACEinclude:array_size.h for a subprogram which returns the correct size to be passed to ALLOC for 2D and 3D arrays, thus making such calculations unnecessary. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EOF - syntax: EOF(n) where n is the filenumber of an open file. - EOF is a function which returns either -1 or 0 depending upon whether the file pointer has reached the end-of-file or not. - If the file doesn't exist or hasn't been opened, EOF returns -1. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- END - Closes standard libraries, performs other cleanup operations and passes control back to parent process (CLI/Shell or Wb). - Don't use END within an IF..THEN..END IF block. Use STOP instead which is functionally equivalent in ACE. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ERR - syntax: ERR - This parameterless function returns the error code corresponding to a failed operation (or zero if no error has occurred) and then *immediately* clears the error code (sets it to zero). - It is important to realise that the error code is cleared before the function returns its value, since unless this value is stored, it will be lost. - The most typical usage is as part of a conditional test, eg: IF ERR<>0 THEN PRINT "Error!":STOP - ERR may also be called after an error has been trapped by the ON ERROR event trapping mechanism. See ace.doc for more details about event trapping in ACE. - Here are the current codes: -- AmigaBASIC codes -- 52 - Bad File Number 54 - Bad File Mode -- AmigaDOS codes -- 103 to 233 - See The AmigaDOS Manual (Bantam), Error Codes and Messages. -- ACE codes -- 300 - Error opening serial port 301 - Error closing serial port 302 - Error reading from/querying serial port 303 - Error writing to serial port 304 - Bad channel number/serial port not open 400 - Error opening message channel 401 - Error closing message channel 402 - Error reading message channel 403 - Error writing to message channel 404 - Error waiting on message channel 405 - Bad message channel 500 - Error opening IFF file 501 - Error closing IFF file 502 - Error reading IFF file 503 - Bad IFF channel 600 - Error opening screen 700 - Error opening window -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ERROR - syntax: ERROR ON|OFF|STOP - These commands are used for enabling, disabling and suspending ON ERROR event trapping. - See the Event Trapping section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EQV - Boolean operator: X EQV Y. X Y Out ----------- T T T T F F F T F F F T -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXIT FOR * - This command allows for the premature, conditional termination of a FOR..NEXT loop. - Since ACE uses the stack for FOR..NEXT loop counter & step values, issuing a RETURN inside a FOR loop is dangerous because the top item on the stack is something other than the expected return address. - In short, leaving a FOR loop before it has finished and never returning (CALL and GOSUB are okay since they will return to the loop) is unsafe in ACE, which is why EXIT FOR has been provided because it properly cleans up the stack before prematurely exiting the loop. - When nesting one FOR loop inside another, be aware that the inner FOR loop's EXIT FOR will override any previous EXIT FOR directives in the enclosing outer FOR loop. As a consequence of this: FOR I=1 TO 10 PRINT I FOR J=1 TO 5 PRINT J IF MOUSE(0) THEN EXIT FOR NEXT IF MOUSE(0) THEN EXIT FOR NEXT will have the desired effect, whereas: FOR I=1 TO 10 PRINT I IF MOUSE(0) THEN EXIT FOR '..overridden below! FOR J=1 TO 5 PRINT J IF MOUSE(0) THEN EXIT FOR NEXT NEXT will not. Observe the effect of running these two code fragments in order to see what's going on here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXIT SUB - This command can only be used inside a subprogram and when encountered, has the effect of passing control back to the caller of the subprogram in which it appears. - If the current instantiation of the subprogram is the result of a recursive call, control will be returned to the previous instantiation of the same subprogram. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXP - syntax: EXP(n) - Returns e to the power n, where e is the base of natural logarithms or 2.7182818284590. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXTERNAL * - syntax: EXTERNAL [FUNCTION] [<type>] <identifier>[%&!$] - Used to declare an external function or variable. - To declare the data type of an external object, either qualifier characters or one of the following type keywords may be used: ADDRESS,LONGINT,SHORTINT,SINGLE,STRING - See the section on External References in ace.doc. - See also the DECLARE command for an alternative (and better) external function declaration syntax. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILEBOX$ * - syntax: FILEBOX$(title-string[,default-directory]) - This function invokes a file requester and returns the user's selection as a fully qualified path. - The title-string is displayed in the title bar of the file requester (eg: "Open", "Select a file"). - If the (optional) default-directory is specified, the file requester's initial "view" will be in that directory. - If the program is running under Wb 2.04 or higher, an ASL file requester appears. If not, an Arp requester is invoked which means that if you are running Wb 1.3 or lower, you'll need arp.library in your LIBS: directory. - If you are using FileBox$ under Wb 1.3 make sure you have a stack (in the shell/CLI or Tool) which is at least 5000 bytes in size. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILES - syntax: FILES [TO <storefile>] [,<target>] - Gives an unsorted directory listing ala AmigaBASIC except that ACE's version takes two optional arguments while AmigaBASIC's takes one (<target>). - If <storefile> is specified, the listing will be captured by that file. - If <storefile> is omitted, it is assumed that the program containing the FILES command was invoked from a shell or CLI (since the listing will be displayed). - The <target> argument can be a file, directory or AmigaDOS device name which is to be the subject of the directory listing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIX - syntax: FIX(n) - The function returns the truncated integer portion of n. - FIX(n) is equivalent to SGN(n)*INT(ABS(n)). - Whereas INT(n) rounds off a negative number to the next lowest whole number, FIX does not. or - syntax: FIX n - The command which is found only in ACE is intended to have a similar effect to the FIX button found on some calculators that is, to change the number of decimal places ACE rounds a single-precision number to. - FIX utilises the ami.lib function arnd(). When the value of n is anything other than 8, arnd() is invoked. This affects the commands: PRINT, PRINTS, WRITE#, PRINT# and STR$. - FIX should be considered experimental since I have not completely figured out what all the values of n (as used directly by arnd()) do yet. - In a future release, a given value for n may have different results than it does now. Currently, n may be positive or negative. Examples -------- FIX -3 PRINT 12.3456 would display: 12.35 - PRINT USING will obviate the need for this command in a future release in any case. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FONT * - syntax: FONT <name>,<size> - Changes the font for the current output window. - <font> is a string such as "opal" or "opal.font" and <size> is an integer point size. - Currently only works for windows created with the WINDOW command, not for shells. - It is best to follow a FONT statement with a LOCATE command to "notify" the window of the font change (eg. LOCATE 1,1). This ensures correct line-feed height for future PRINT statements. - See also the STYLE command (which works in ALL windows). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOR..NEXT - syntax: FOR <variable>=x TO y [STEP z] - The statements between FOR and NEXT are iterated the number of times it takes for <variable> to become equal to or greater than y (or less than y if z is negative) starting from x. The loop index <variable> is incremented by z, or 1 if STEP is not specified. - NEXT can only be followed by a variable, colon or comment and must appear on a separate line or in a multi-statement (not after THEN for example). - Any attempt to use a shared variable as a FOR loop index will result in an (intentional) compilation error. - If you want to branch out of a FOR loop never to return, use EXIT FOR. See also the further discussion of this issue (including RETURNing from within a FOR loop) in the "Limitations" section of ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FORWARD * - syntax: FORWARD n - Move the turtle forward n steps. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRE - syntax: FRE(n) where n is -1,0,1,2 or 3. - Since ACE's run-time environment is different to AmigaBASIC's, FRE returns different values and takes different arguments than in AmigaBASIC. - FRE returns the amount of free system memory according to n: n = -1 -> total CHIP + FAST memory free. n = 0 -> total CHIP memory free. n = 1 -> total FAST memory free. n = 2 -> largest contiguous CHIP memory available. n = 3 -> largest contiguous FAST memory available. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GADGET * - syntax: GADGET id,status[,gadval,rectangle,type[,style] [,font,size,textstyle]] where id is a unique gadget ID from 1 to 255 and status is 1 or 0 to enable or disable the gadget, respectively. The keywords ON and OFF can be used instead of 1 and 0. - The remainder of the parameters are optional, but gadval, rectangle and type must be specified when creating a new gadget. - The first of these, gadval, is either a string or long integer (see below); rectangle defines the border of the gadget as (x1,y1)-(x2,y2). - The GADGET command creates a new gadget or alters the status of an existing gadget according to the above and in accordance with the final two parameters: type and style, as follows (gadval meaning is also shown): - Type may either be a numeric value from 1 to 5 or one of the following keywords: BUTTON, STRING, LONGINT, POTX or POTY, correspondingly. Type Gadget Style Effect GadVal ---- ------ ----- ------ ------ 1 Boolean 1 All points inside the Gadget text gadget are complemented when it is clicked (this is the default). 2 A box is drawn around Gadget text the gadget when clicked. 3 Borderless. Gadget text 2 String 1 Center justifies text. Default text 2 Right justifies text. (The default is left justification). 3 LongInt 1 Center justifies number. Default number (as string) 2 Right justifies number. (The default is left justification). 4 Horiz. Slider 1 Borderless. Maximum slider value (0..gadval) 5 Vertical Slider 1 Borderless. Maximum slider value (0..gadval) - Note that the final three parameters: font, size and textstyle are only meaningful in the context of BUTTON gadgets. They are otherwise ignored. OR - syntax: GADGET(n) where n is a number from 0 to 3. - The GADGET function returns information about the last gadget event according to the following: N Returns - ------- 0 -1 if a gadget event has occurred since the last call to GADGET(0), 0 otherwise. 1 The number of the last gadget selected. If the window's close gadget was clicked after doing a GADGET WAIT 0, 256 will be returned. This is not the case for event trapping of gadgets, where ON WINDOW should be used instead. 2 Returns the address of the string from the most recently selected string gadget or the long integer value from the most recently selected LongInt gadget. In the former case, use ACE's CSTR function to convert the address into an ACE string. 3 Returns the slider position of the most recently selected (horizontal or vertical) proportional gadget. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GADGET CLOSE * - syntax: GADGET CLOSE id - This command removes the specified gadget from the current output window and should always be called when you are finished with a gadget. - Make sure that the window belonging to the gadget you wish to close is the current output window (see WINDOW OUTPUT command below). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GADGET MOD * - syntax: GADGET MOD id,knob-position[,max-positions] - This command modifies the specified proportional gadget. - The new knob position (within the gadget's body) must be specified. - The optional max-positions parameter if specified changes the number of discrete positions in which the knob may be found. A significant change from the previous value given (eg. see the gadval parameter in the GADGET command) may result in a change to the knob size. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GADGET ON .. * - syntax: GADGET ON|OFF|STOP - These commands are used for enabling, disabling and suspending ON GADGET event trapping. - See the Event Trapping section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GADGET WAIT * - syntax: GADGET WAIT id - This command puts the program to sleep until it receives a message that the specified gadget has been selected. - If id=0 the program will wake up when ANY gadget is selected. A call to GADGET(1) can then be used to determine the number of the gadget. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOSUB..RETURN - syntax: GOSUB <label> | <line> - GOSUB transfers control to the specified label or line. - RETURN passes control back to the statement following the most recent GOSUB command. - Issuing a RETURN without a matching GOSUB will generally invoke the GURU. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOTO - syntax: GOTO <label> | <line> - Transfers control to the specified label or line. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HANDLE * - syntax: HANDLE(n) where n is the file number of an OPENed file (1..255). - This function returns a long integer which is a pointer to a dos file handle suitable for use with dos.library functions such as Read (xRead when declared in ACE/AmigaBASIC). - If HANDLE returns 0 the file does not exist or can't be opened as requested. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADING * - Returns the turtle's current heading in degrees (0..359). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEX$ - syntax: HEX$(n) - Returns a string which represents the hexadecimal value of the decimal argument n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME * - Move the turtle to its home position. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IF - syntax: IF..THEN..[ELSE..] IF..GOTO..[ELSE..] IF..THEN . [ELSE] . END IF - ELSEIF is not yet implemented. - IF..[ELSE]..END IF blocks can be nested. - Use STOP rather than END before an END IF otherwise the compiler will become confused. - There must be _something_ between IF..THEN and END IF, even if only a blank line or comment, eg. IF x=2 THEN '..do something or maybe nothing END IF -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IFF * - syntax: IFF(channel,n) - This function returns information about the IFF graphics file associated with the specified channel. - The channel parameter must be in the range 1..255. - The values returned are dictated by N thus: N Return value - ------------ 0 Address of name of IFF picture form (eg: ILBM). Use ACE's CSTR function to retrieve the string. 1 Width of picture. 2 Height of picture. 3 Depth of picture. 4 Screen Mode to use in SCREEN command. Note: if IFF(channel,3) returns a depth of 6, HAM mode is currently assumed even though it might be extra-halfbrite. If the picture doesn't render correctly, use screen-mode 6 rather than 5 (see SCREEN command). Alternatively, don't specify the screen-id when using the IFF READ command. This issue may be resolved in a future revision. - Information returned by values to this function when N is in the range 1..4 can be used directly in a SCREEN command. - See also IFF OPEN, IFF READ and ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IFF CLOSE * - syntax: IFF CLOSE [#]channel - Closes the specified IFF channel. - If a screen was opened by IFF READ, IFF CLOSE will close this. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IFF OPEN * - syntax: IFF OPEN [#]channel,file-name - This command associates an IFF picture file with the specified channel. - All subsequent IFF command/function calls use this channel number. - The IFF OPEN command also stores important information about the picture file for IFF READ and IFF(channel,n). - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IFF READ * - syntax: IFF READ [#]channel[,screen-id] - This command loads the IFF picture from the file associated with the specified channel. - The screen-id is optional. If not supplied, a non-ACE screen and window will be used to display the picture, which is closed later by a call to IFF CLOSE. - Otherwise, the screen should be opened in accordance with the information returned via the IFF function (see above). - See also ERR and ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMP - Boolean operator: X IMP Y. X Y Out ----------- T T T T F F F T T F F T -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INKEY$ - syntax: INKEY$ - Returns a single character string when a keystroke is pending, otherwise the NULL string is returned. - INKEY$ works fine in user-defined windows, but since a normal CON: window intercepts all keystrokes, INKEY$ is not very useful in a shell/CLI. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INPUTBOX * - syntax: INPUTBOX(prompt[,title][,default][,xpos][,ypos]) - This function returns a long integer value after invoking a requester which prompts the user to enter a value. If you need to get a single-precision value, apply VAL to the result of the INPUTBOX$ function (see next entry). - An OK and Cancel gadget allow the user to accept or reject the entered value. Zero is returned if the Cancel gadget is selected. - The prompt string must be specified but all other parameters are optional: title goes into the requester's title bar; default is a string containing a default integer value which becomes the return value if nothing is entered; xpos and ypos specify where to place the requester on the screen. - Example: num& = INPUTBOX("Enter a number:",,"12345") -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INPUTBOX$ * - syntax: INPUTBOX$(prompt[,title][,default][,xpos][,ypos]) - This function returns a string value after invoking a requester which prompts the user to enter a value. - An OK and Cancel gadget allow the user to accept or reject the entered string. If Cancel is selected the NULL string is returned. - The prompt string must be specified but all other parameters are optional: title goes into the requester's title bar; default is a string return value to be used if no new value is entered; xpos and ypos specify where to place the requester on the screen. - Example: command$ = INPUTBOX$("Enter a command:") -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INPUT - syntax: INPUT [<prompt-string>] [;|,] var1 [[;|,] varN..] - Strings, integers and fixed-point or exponential format single-precision values can be input from the keyboard. - Each value must appear on a separate line even when a single INPUT statement contains multiple variables. - If a semicolon precedes a variable "? " will appear, while if a comma is used no "? " will appear. - As of ACE v2.0 INPUT works with any screen or window mode. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INPUT # - syntax: INPUT #filenumber,<variable-list> - Reads data items from a sequential file. - The variables in <variable-list> must each match the type of item being read. - If unambiguous data format is required, it is best to use WRITE# to store the values that INPUT# will read since WRITE# separates each item with commas and delimits strings with double quotes allowing for spaces. WRITE# will also result in more efficient use of disk space and faster reading by INPUT#. - ACE accepts white space (line feeds, spaces, tabs), commas and quotes as delimiters for each field in a sequential file. - AmigaBASIC and ACE sequential file formats are virtually identical. - See also "Files" section in ace.doc. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INPUT$ - syntax: INPUT$(X,[#]filenumber) - Returns a string of X characters from the filenumber'th file. - There is a 32K upper limit for X in ACE, but if you want to read a whole file for example, and the file length (determined by the LOF function) is greater than MAXSTRINGLEN you should do the following: STRING myString SIZE N OPEN "I",#1,filename$ myString = INPUT$(LOF(1),#1) CLOSE #1 or if you want to allocate space at run-time according to the exact file size: bytes& = LOF(1) + 1 '..need "+1" for EOS marker addr& = ALLOC(bytes&) STRING myString ADDRESS addr& OPEN "I",#1,filename$ myString = INPUT$(bytes&,#1) CLOSE #1 - This method should only be used for small text files as it is slow, and text is really the only useful thing to put in a string if you wish to manipulate it. Some string functions will react unexpectedly to non-text characters in strings. - If you wish to read a large file rapidly, it's best to use the dos.library function Read (declared as xRead in BASIC). The sound player play.b gives an example of this. - In general INPUT$ is most useful for reading a few characters at a time from a file. If you wish to read a line at a time, use LINE INPUT#. Use INPUT# if you want to read numbers or delimited strings. - INPUT$ in ACE is only used for sequential file input, so the filenumber is not optional. In AmigaBASIC, if the latter is omitted, input is taken from the keyboard. Not so in ACE. - See also section on files in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INSTR - syntax: INSTR([I,]X$,Y$) - INSTR searches for the first occurrence of Y$ in X$ and returns the character position from 1..N in X$. - If the optional offset I is specified, the search starts from that position, otherwise the search starts from the first character in X$. - If I is greater than len(X$) or X$="" or Y$ is not found in X$ or len(Y$) > len(X$), INSTR returns 0. - If Y$="", INSTR returns I or 1. - X$ and Y$ can be string expressions, variables or literals or any combination thereof. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INT - syntax: INT(n) - Returns the largest integer less than or equal to n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KILL - syntax: KILL <filespec> - Deletes a file or directory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEFT$ - syntax: LEFT$(X$,I) - Returns a string which contains the leftmost I characters of X$. - If I > len(X$), the whole string (X$) is returned. - If I = 0, the NULL string is returned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEN - syntax: LEN(X$) - Returns the number of characters in X$. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LET - syntax: [LET] <variable> = <expression> - LET assigns a value to a variable. - Its use is optional so that LET X=1 is equivalent to X=1. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LIBRARY - syntax: LIBRARY [CLOSE] [<libname>] - Opens or closes one or more Amiga shared libraries. - Note that <libname> may be with or without quotes and can either end in ".library", ".bmap" or have no file extension whatever in ACE. - For example, to open the graphics library, two legal syntaxes are: LIBRARY graphics and LIBRARY "graphics.library" - LIBRARY CLOSE closes all open libraries or a single library can be specified instead. - See "Shared library function calls" section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINE - The syntax of this command - apart from the simple case of LINE (x1,y1)-(x2,y2)[,color,b[f]] - is a little unclear from the AmigaBASIC manual. - The syntax of the LINE command in ACE is currently as follows: LINE [STEP](x1,y1)[-(x2,y2)[,[color],[b[f]]]] - The second STEP directive has been omitted, but may be added in a future revision. - A statement such as LINE STEP (100,90) will cause a line to be drawn from the last referenced coordinate to 100,90. In addition, this use of LINE does *not* allow for colour setting as can be seen from the ACE syntax specification whereas LINE (100,90)-(200,150),color does. The same is true for the "b" and "bf" options. A future version may correct this problem. - Note: When using "b" or "bf", x2 must be >= x1 and y2 must be >= y1 otherwise display weirdness will result! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LINE INPUT - syntax: LINE INPUT #filenumber,<string-variable> - Reads a line from the filenumber'th sequential file and stores it in <string-variable> (simple variable or array element). - If <string-variable> does not exist, ACE creates it. - Lines are delimited by a line-feed character (ASCII 10) and the string which is returned consists of the characters up to but not including the line-feed. - Note that the AmigaBASIC manual (8-72) shows a semicolon instead of a comma in the above syntax which is incorrect since AmigaBASIC itself accepts only a comma. - The alternative form of LINE INPUT for keyboard input is not currently implemented in ACE. - LINE INPUT will not read more than MAXSTRINGLEN characters. - See also INPUT$ (which will read up to 32K of characters), INPUT# and ace.doc's section on files. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOCATE - syntax: LOCATE line[,column]. - LOCATE changes the printing position for the current screen or window. - Note that the use of LOCATE on a screen or user-defined window currently also changes the next graphics drawing coordinates. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOF - syntax: LOF(n) where n is the file number of an open file. - LOF returns the length of the file in bytes. - If the file is not open or is non-existent, LOF returns 0. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LOG - syntax: LOG(n) - Returns the natural logarithm of n (log base e of n). - The argument n should be greater than zero. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LONGINT * - syntax: LONGINT <identifier>[,..] - Declares and initialises (to zero) one or more long integer variables. OR - syntax: LONGINT(X$) - This function returns the numeric value of X$ as a long integer number. - The hexadecimal and octal directives (&H and &O) may prefix the string in order to allow the handling of these bases. - LONGINT strips off leading whitespace (eg: spaces, tabs). - The main use for this function is to overcome the loss of accuracy which results when VAL is used to extract a _large_ long integer value from a string. - See also VAL. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MENU - syntax: MENU menu-id,item-id,state[,title[,command-key]] - This command creates or modifies the state of a menu or menu item as per AmigaBASIC. - The final optional parameter is peculiar to ACE and if used, specifies the Amiga-<key> sequence which if issued results in the selection of the corresponding menu option. The command key option is displayed along with the menu item when the menu is rendered. - The state parameter can have the following values: State Effect ----- ------ 0 Menu or item is disabled (shadowed). 1 Menu or item is enabled. 2 Menu item is checkmarked. There must be at least 2 spaces preceding the item for the tick to be rendered properly. - The most advisable method of creating menus is to start from the first menu and first item in each menu, and code them in sequence thereafter. OR - syntax: MENU(n) - This function returns information about the most recently selected menu and item. If n=0 the number of the menu is returned. If n=1 the number of the menu item is returned. - MENU(0) returns 0 between menu events after being called once for a particular menu selection. - This function must be used in conjunction with MENU event trapping or WAITing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MENU CLEAR * - syntax: MENU CLEAR - This command is the equivalent of MENU RESET in AmigaBASIC. - The result of calling this is to clear the menu strip for the current output window. In AmigaBASIC the initial menu for the interpreter's window is restored if a new menu is set up in that window. This does not apply in ACE. - WINDOW CLOSE performs a menu clear in case you don't. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MENU ON .. - syntax: MENU ON|OFF|STOP - These commands are used for enabling, disabling and suspending ON MENU event trapping. - See the Event Trapping section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MENU WAIT * - syntax: MENU WAIT - This command puts the program to sleep until menu activity is detected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE CLEAR * - syntax: MESSAGE CLEAR [#]channel - Clears the message port associated with the specified channel. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE CLOSE * - syntax: MESSAGE CLOSE [#]channel - Closes the specified message channel. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE OPEN * - syntax: MESSAGE OPEN [#]channel,port-name,mode - Creates a message channel for reading (mode="R") or writing (mode="W"). - If the channel is for writing, the port-name is the name of a message port which is assumed to exist. If it does not exist an error will result (see ERR). You can therefore poll a remote port to determine when it has been created. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE READ * - syntax: MESSAGE READ [#]channel,buffer - Reads a message into buffer from the specified message channel. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE WAIT * - syntax: MESSAGE WAIT [#]channel - Waits for a message to appear on the specified channel. - Please note that if no message is forthcoming, this command will wait forever. - Waiting on a port opened for writing (mode = "W") has the effect of waiting for the remote task to signal that it has accepted a message written to its port. This allows for synchronisation between processes, ie. A writes to B, B accepts message from A, A continues processing. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE WRITE * - syntax: MESSAGE WRITE [#]channel,buffer - Writes a message to the specified message channel from the buffer. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MID$ - syntax: MID$(X$,I[,J]) - Only the MID$ _function_ is currently implemented in ACE. - Returns a string containing J characters from X$ starting from the Ith character. - If J is omitted or there are fewer than J characters to the right of (and including) the Ith character, all characters from the Ith position to the end of the string are returned. - If I > len(X$), MID$ returns the NULL string. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOD - Modulo arithmetic operator: X MOD Y. eg: 101 MOD 10 = 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOUSE - syntax: MOUSE(n) - Returns information about the current status of the mouse. - Values of n ranging from 0..2 are presently meaningful in ACE. - MOUSE(0) returns -1 or 0 to indicate whether the left mouse button is currently being pressed or not. - MOUSE(1) returns the X location of the mouse pointer in the current output window or screen. - MOUSE(2) returns the Y location of the mouse pointer in the current output window or screen. - Future revisions of ACE will add more functionality to MOUSE(n). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOUSE ON .. - syntax: MOUSE ON|OFF|STOP - These commands are used for enabling, disabling and suspending ON MOUSE event trapping. - See the Event Trapping section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MSGBOX * - syntax: MSGBOX(message,button-text1[,button-text2]) - This function invokes a system requester having one or two buttons (boolean gadgets) with the specified text in each, plus a message in the requester's main body as specified by the message parameter. - If only button-text1 is given, a single button is rendered, otherwise two buttons appear. - The function's return value is -1 or 0 depending upon whether the first or second button is selected by the user. With only one button present, the return value is always -1. - Example: result = MsgBox("Really Quit?","Yes","No") OR - syntax: MSGBOX message,button-text - This statement can be used to display a simple system requester. Since no value is returned via this statement, only a single button is permitted. - Example: MsgBox "File Deleted!","Continue" - Note that the message may only consist of a single line but a future revision will allow for multiple lines. - Note also that under Wb 1.3 the "message" text is used to determine the width of the requester. Under Workbench 2.x/3.0, the operating system proportions the requester appropriately. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NAME - syntax: NAME <filespec1> AS <filespec2> - Renames a file or directory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOT - Boolean operator: NOT X. X Out ----------- T F F T -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OCT$ - syntax: OCT$(n) - Returns the octal string representation of the long integer value n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ON..GOTO/GOSUB/CALL - syntax 1: ON <integer-expr> GOTO | GOSUB <label> | <line> eg. ON n GOSUB one,two,three,four,five such that if n=1 the program will branch to the label "one" and if n=4 the branch will be to "four". - syntax 2: ON <event-spec> GOTO | GOSUB <label> | <line> syntax 3: ON <event-spec> CALL <SUBprogram-name> - See "Event Trapping" section in ace.doc for more details of the usage represented by syntax 2 and 3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPEN - syntax: OPEN mode,[#]filenumber,<filespec> which is the same as syntax 1 in AmigaBASIC except that no file-buffer size can be specified. - Mode is an upper or lower case character where: - "I" = open file for input - "O" = open file for output - "A" = open file for appending; creates new file if <filespec> doesn't exist. - Filenumber is a value from 1..255 and <filespec> is a string containing the file name (eg: "test.doc", "df1:letters/santa"). - Multiple files can be open simultaneously. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPTION * - syntax: OPTION <switch>+|-[,<switch>+|-..] - Compiler directives (switches) can be issued via this command instead of from the command line. The latter only allows for compiler directives to be *activated*. - Each switch must be followed by a "+" or "-" with the former activating the directive and the latter neutralising it. - Switches currently implemented are: b,c,E,i,l,m,O,w - See ace.doc, "Compiler options" for details of each switch. Notice that for switches i and O, activation or deactivation takes effect at the end of compilation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OR - Boolean operator: X OR Y. X Y Out ----------- T T T T F T F T T F F F -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PAINT - syntax: PAINT (x,y)[[,color-id][,border-id]] - PAINT flood-fills an enclosed region with the color specified by color-id and if the latter is omitted, the current foreground pen is used. - If border-id is not specified, color-id is used to determine when to stop the filling process by looking for a border of that color. The use of border-id allows a region to be filled with one color and be bordered by another. - x and y can be anywhere within the enclosed region. - Note that the ACE version of PAINT has no STEP option so x and y constitute an absolute coordinate. - STEP may be added in a future revision. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PALETTE - syntax: PALETTE color-id,R,G,B where R,G,B are the red, green and blue color components of color-id, each in the range 0..1. - Palette changes colors in the current screen (including the Workbench!). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PATTERN - syntax: PATTERN [line-pattern][,area-pattern] | RESTORE - Same as in AmigaBASIC with the addition of a RESTORE option. PATTERN RESTORE resets the line and area patterns to their default values. - The line-pattern is a short integer value. - The area-pattern is a DIM'd short integer array. - The number of elements in area-pattern must be a power of 2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PEEKx - syntax: PEEKx(<address>) - The functions PEEK,PEEKW and PEEKL return an 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit value from memory, respectively. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PENDOWN * - Lowers the turtle's "pen". This enables drawing by the turtle graphics commands. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PENUP * - Raises the turtle's "pen". This disables drawing by the turtle graphics commands. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POINT - syntax: POINT(x,y) - Returns the color-id of a point in the current output window or screen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POKEx - syntax: POKEx <address>,<numeric-value> - The commands POKE,POKEW and POKEL change the contents of <address> to <numeric-value>. - The number of bits affected is 8, 16 and 32 respectively. - Unless you know what you are POKEing and why, don't (!!) or you can expect a visit from the Guru. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POS - Returns the print column in the current user-defined screen or window. - Note that the syntax is different from AmigaBASIC where a dummy argument of zero is used: POS(0). - POS and CSRLIN have no meaning in a CLI/shell and will return 0 if used when a CLI/shell is the current output window. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POTX * - syntax: POTX(n) where n=0 or 1 (game port 1 or 2). - Returns a short integer value corresponding to the current potentiometer reading on pin 5 of the game port. - POTX(0) returns 0 currently. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- POTY * - syntax: POTY(n) where n=0 or 1 (game port 1 or 2). - Returns a short integer value corresponding to the current potentiometer reading on pin 9 of the game port. - POTY(0) returns 0 currently. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINT - syntax: PRINT [<expression>][,|;| ..] where <expression> is a string or numeric value to be printed at the current print location of the current (DOS or Intuition) output window. - LOCATE can be used to set the location for the next PRINT command. So can SETXY for printing in a non-shell window. - PRINT can be abbreviated to '?' as in AmigaBASIC. - If <expression> is followed by a semi-colon, a line-feed will not occur before the next PRINT. - If <expression> is followed by a comma, the effect is the same except that first, a horizontal tab (CHR$(9)) is sent to the output window. - Note that ASCII 9 does not have exactly the same effect as an AmigaBASIC tab, but the result is similar. If spacing is critical, you should use TAB or SPC. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINT # - syntax: PRINT #filenumber,<expression>[,|;| ..] where <expression> is a string or numeric value to be printed at the current print location in the filenumber'th file. - PRINT can be abbreviated to '?' as in AmigaBASIC. - This version of PRINT # writes values to a file in the same format as they would appear in a window. - One oddity is that since ACE strings are NULL-terminated, and this NULL (ASCII 0) is normally not displayed, any attempt to send this character to a file, eg: PRINT #filenumber,CHR$(0) should by all rights be ignored. However, since some programs write NULLs to files as delimiters, ACE does NOT ignore a lone CHR$(0). A consequence of this is that if you send an empty - LEN(<string>) = 0 - string to a file, an ASCII 0 will be written. This also holds true for WRITE #filenumber,<string>. Just check the length of a string before sending it to a file if in doubt. - Given the above behaviour, use: PRINT #filenumber,CHR$(10) or PRINT #filenumber," " '..at least 1 space to cause a line-feed to be sent to the file. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINTS * - syntax: PRINTS [<expression>][,|;| ..] where <expression> is a string or numeric value to be printed at the current x,y location of an open screen or Intuition window. SETXY or LOCATE can be used to set the X,Y coordinates for the next PRINTS command. - This command is now redundant since as of ACE v2.0 PRINT handles DOS and Intuition windows/screens transparently. - However since PRINTS doesn't have to make a decision about whether to print to a DOS or Intuition window, it is faster than PRINT. It is not intended for use in a CLI/shell however. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PSET - syntax: PSET [STEP] (x,y)[,color-id] - Plots a point in the current output window or screen. - If color-id is not specified, the current foreground color is used. - If STEP is specified, the point is relative to the current x,y location as set by the last graphics command. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PTAB - syntax: PTAB(n) where n is in the range: 0..32767 - This function is used in conjunction with PRINT to move the horizontal print position for the current output window to the nth pixel. - Subsequent graphics commands are also affected by PTAB. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RANDOMIZE - syntax: RANDOMIZE <expression> - Seeds the random number generator. - In ACE, RANDOMIZE *requires* an argument. TIMER and all other arguments will be coerced to long integers. - RANDOMIZE TIMER is the most commonly used syntax. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- READ - syntax: READ <variable>[,<variableN>..] - Assigns <variable> the value of the next item in the global data list as created by DATA statements in the current program. - The <variable> must be of the same type as the data item to be read otherwise an unexpected value will be assigned to <variable>. - See also DATA (especially re: READing long values). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REM - syntax: REM <comment> - A single-line comment. - All characters after REM until the end of line are ignored. - REM can be substituted by an apostrophe as in AmigaBASIC. - While REM is treated as a true statement, and must either appear on a separate line or after a ":" in a multi-statement, an apostrophe followed by a comment can appear anywhere in the text of a program. - Note that ACE also supports block comments: {..}. - The ACE compiler can handle the three types of comments while the pre-processor APP can only handle the ' and {..} forms. Some form of commenting is required by APP so that pre-processor commands can be commented out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REPEAT..UNTIL * - syntax: REPEAT . . UNTIL <condition> where <condition> is an expression which reduces to a boolean (true/false) value. - Statements between the REPEAT and UNTIL are executed until the <condition> is true (ie: non-zero). - Styled after the Pascal REPEAT..UNTIL construct. - The loop is always executed at least once. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RESTORE - syntax: RESTORE - Resets the DATA pointer to the first DATA statement in the program. - Note that there is no optional label in the ACE version of RESTORE. This may be added in a future revision. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHT$ - syntax: RIGHT$(X$,I) - Returns a string which contains the rightmost I characters of X$. - If I > len(X$), the whole string (X$) is returned. - If I = 0, the NULL string is returned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RND - syntax: RND[(X)] - The RND function takes an optional parameter and always returns a single-precision pseudo-random value between 0 and 1. - At present if it is supplied, X is ignored in ACE. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SADD - syntax: SADD(<string-expression>) - Returns the address of <string-expression> which can be a string literal, variable or expression. - Unlike AmigaBASIC, string allocations after a call to SADD have no impact upon the address of <string-expression>. - VARPTR can also safely be used to find the address of a string variable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAY - In ACE, there is a SAY command and a SAY function. SAY command ----------- - syntax: SAY <phoneme-string>[,mode-array] - Same as AmigaBASIC's SAY command: speak a phoneme string. - The <phoneme-string> can be a string literal, expression or variable, while the optional mode-array is a 9-element (0..8) DIM'd short integer array. - The mode-array is allowed, and the following parameters are supported: Argument Element Values Default -------- ------- ------ ------- pitch 0 65..320 110 inflection 1 0 or 1 0 rate 2 40..400 150 voice 3 0 or 1 0 tuning 4 5000..28000 22200 (Hz) volume 5 0..64 64 channel 6 0..11 10 mode 7 0 or 1 0 control 8 0,1 or 2 0 - Inflection=0 allows inflections and emphasis of syllables while inflection=1 gives a monotone voice. - The voice parameter specifies gender: 0=male; 1=female. - Audio channel values have the same meaning as in AmigaBASIC: Value Channel(s) ----- ---------- 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 0 and 1 5 0 and 2 6 3 and 1 7 3 and 2 8 either available left channel 9 either available right channel 10 either available left/right pair of channels 11 any available single channel - Mode is used to specify synchronous or asynchronous speech (0 and 1 respectively). - Control is used when mode=1 to determine what action is to be taken when asynchronous speech is active. If control is set to 0, the current SAY command waits until the last SAY is finished before executing. When control=1 the last SAY statement is cancelled and speech processing stops until the next call to SAY. When control=2 ACE interrupts the last SAY command and initiates the current one. - The defaults are the same as in AmigaBASIC. SAY function (only works properly under 2.04 or higher) ------------ - syntax: SAY(n) where n equals 0, 1 or 2. SAY(0) - returns true or false (-1 or 0) to indicate whether there is currently active asynchronous speech. SAY(1) - returns the width of the "mouth" corresponding to the phoneme being spoken. SAY(2) - returns the height of the "mouth" corresponding to the phoneme being spoken. - SAY(0) allows for monitoring of the asynchronous speech process (see details of mode-array above). - Use of SAY(1) and SAY(2) allows an animated mouth to be drawn. - SAY(1)'s and SAY(2)'s values reflect the last call to SAY(0) and so must be used in conjunction with the latter. - Usage of the SAY function is typically like this: SAY ... '..start asynchronous speech WHILE SAY(0) x = SAY(1) y = SAY(2) . . WEND -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCREEN - The SCREEN statement syntax is the same as in AmigaBASIC: SCREEN screen-id,width,height,depth,mode where mode is one of the following: 1 = lores 2 = hires 3 = lores,interlaced 4 = hires,interlaced. 5 = HAM (hold-and-modify) [ACE only] 6 = extra-halfbrite [ACE only] - See also ERR. - The SCREEN function (ACE only) syntax is SCREEN(n), where: SCREEN(0) - Returns a pointer to the Intuition window, that is, the current output window or default window for the screen. SCREEN(1) - Returns a pointer to the Intuition screen. SCREEN(2) - Returns a pointer to the rastport of the default window or current output window for the screen. SCREEN(3) - Returns a pointer to the screen's viewport. SCREEN(4) - Returns a pointer to the screen's bitmap. SCREEN(5) - Returns the width of the screen's font. SCREEN(6) - Returns the height of the screen's font. - A future revision of ACE's SCREEN command will support AGA screen modes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCREEN BACK - syntax: SCREEN BACK screen-id - Sends the specified screen to the back of the display. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCREEN CLOSE - syntax: SCREEN CLOSE screen-id - Closes a single screen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCREEN FORWARD - syntax: SCREEN FORWARD screen-id - Makes the specified screen frontmost. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCROLL - syntax: SCROLL (xmin,ymin)-(xmax,ymax),delta-x,delta-y - Scrolls bits inside the specified rectangle. - Delta-x and delta-y specify motion right and down respectively. - Negative delta values produce motion to the left and up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SERIAL * - syntax: SERIAL(channel,n) where channel is a serial channel identifier from 1..255 and n is a function number from 0..12 (see below). - This function returns information about an open serial channel. n value ------- 0 - Returns the number of characters in the serial read buffer. Use this value to determine how many bytes to read from the buffer (see SERIAL READ). 1 - Unit number of serial device in use by this channel (see SERIAL OPEN). 2 - Baud rate. 3 - Parity. Actually the ASCII value of the character representing the selected parity (N,E,O,M,S). Use CHR$ function to recover the character. 4 - Number of data bits. 5 - Number of stop bits. 6 - Number of wires for handshaking: 3 or 7. 7 - XON/XOFF feature: 0=disabled; 1=enabled. 8 - Shared access mode: 0=disabled; 1=enabled. 9 - Fast mode: 0=disabled; 1=enabled. 10 - Serial (read) buffer size in bytes. 11 - Name of serial device. Actually, the value returned is the address in memory of the name string. Use ACE's CSTR function to convert it to a string. 12 - A 16-bit word representing the status of the serial port lines and registers. Bit Active Symbol Function --- ------ ------ -------- 0 - Reserved 1 - Reserved 2 high (RI) Parallel Select on A1000 + Ring-indicator on A500/A2000 3 low (DSR) Data Set Ready 4 low (CTS) Clear To Send 5 low (CD) Carrier Detect 6 low (RTS) Ready To Send 7 low (DTR) Data Terminal Ready 8 high Read overrun 9 high Break sent 10 high Break received 11 high Transmit x-OFFed 12 high Receive x-OFFed 13 - Reserved 14 - Reserved 15 - Reserved If you wanted to test for Carrier Detect, code such as: carrier_detect = SERIAL(1,12) AND 32 would store 32 in carrier_detect if CD was high (ie. no carrier) and 0 if CD was low (ie. carrier detected). The value 32 is used here since CD is associated with bit 5 and 2^5 is 32. The 1 here means serial channel 1. Note that the above status word is taken directly from querying the serial device associated with a particular channel and the above table is taken directly from the ROM Kernel Ref. Manual: Devices, (1991), pg 278. - For more information about the serial device modes etc, see SERIAL OPEN command below and Commodore's ROM Kernel Reference Manual: Devices. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SERIAL CLOSE * - syntax: SERIAL CLOSE [#] channel - Closes a logical channel to a serial device. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SERIAL OPEN * - syntax: SERIAL OPEN [#]channel,unit,baud,params[,size][,dev] - This command opens a logical channel to a serial device. - The channel parameter must be in the range 1..255. - The unit parameter tells ACE which serial device unit to open (eg: for a multi-port serial card). Normally however, you should specify 0 for a single serial port. - The baud rate is specified by the baud parameter. This value can be in the range 110..292,000 on the Amiga. - The next parameter is a string consisting of at least three single character "switches": parity - N,E,O,M or S. Other = N. data bits - usually 7 or 8. stop bits - usually 1 or 2. wires - 3 or 7. Other = 7. XON/XOFF - X = enabled. Other = disabled. Access - S = shared. Other = exclusive. Fast mode - F = fast mode. Other = normal. - Parity, data bits and stop bits MUST be specified and in the order shown above, while the remaining switches are optional and can be given in any order. - Fast mode is intended for use in conjunction with peripherals which require high serial throughput, eg. a MIDI device. Higher throughput is achieved by certain internal serial device checks being skipped. Fast mode should be used only when: parity checking has been disabled, XON/XOFF handling is disabled and 8 bit characters are in use. - For a letter, upper or lower case can be used. - In the above description of switches "Other" means any other character (I suggest you use "?" or some other character consistently, to indicate "don't care"). - The optional parameter "size" specifies the size of the serial *read* buffer. At high baud rates the buffer can fill up quickly. The default is 512 bytes. - The final parameter (dev) is also optional. This specifies the name of the serial device to be used. The device name defaults to "serial.device" if not specified. An alternate serial device can be used as long as the device's commands are compatible with the standard serial.device supplied with the Amiga. This device normally lives in the DEVS: directory. - If using another serial device, simply supply its name if it resides in the DEVS: directory, otherwise a full path must be specified. - Here's a typical example of SERIAL OPEN usage: SERIAL OPEN 1,0,2400,"N81",1024 which opens a channel (#1) to the standard serial device with a baud rate of 2400, no parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit. All 7 wires will be used for handshaking and the serial read buffer size will be set to 1K. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SERIAL READ * - syntax: SERIAL READ [#] channel,buffer,length - Tells ACE to read length bytes from the serial buffer corresponding to the (open) logical channel into a string buffer. - The buffer can be a string variable or array. - Note that this command will wait for the serial port read to complete before returning control to your program, so use SERIAL(channel,0) to find out how many bytes are waiting on the port and make length equal to that value. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SERIAL WRITE * - syntax: SERIAL WRITE [#] channel,string,length - Tells ACE to write length bytes to the serial port corresponding to the (open) logical channel from a string buffer. - The string buffer can be any string expression. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SETHEADING * - syntax: SETHEADING n - Changes the turtle's heading to n degrees. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SETXY * - syntax: SETXY x,y - Sets the x,y location for the next graphics command in the current output window or open screen. - Its primary use is for turtle graphics. To prevent the "turtle" drawing a line when SETXY is used, the PENUP command should first be issued. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SGN - syntax: SGN(n) - Returns the sign of the number n: if n>0, SGN(n) returns 1 if n=0, SGN(n) returns 0 if n<0, SGN(n) returns -1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHARED - syntax: SHARED <ident>[,<ident> ... ] - Variables, arrays and structures must explicitly be shared between the main program and subprograms. - Only EXTERNAL variables are exempt from such sharing in ACE since they are global (see "Identifiers" in ace.doc). - One or more SHARED statements can appear in a subprogram and are usually placed before all other code in that SUB. - Declarations of objects to be shared must appear in the main program before the subprogram is *declared*. - See subprograms section in ace.doc and the entry for DIM above re: DIM SHARED. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHL * - syntax: SHL(n,m) where n is the value to be shifted and m is the number of bit positions to shift. - Arithmetic shift left function. Returns a long integer. - Shifting left by 1 bit (or more) is faster than multiplying by 2 (or powers thereof). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHR * - syntax: SHR(n,m) where n is the value to be shifted and m is the number of bit positions to shift. - Arithmetic shift right function. Returns a long integer. - Shifting right by 1 bit (or more) is faster than dividing by 2 (or powers thereof). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SHORTINT * - syntax: SHORTINT <identifier>[,..] - Declares and initialises one or more short integer variables. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SINGLE * - syntax: SINGLE <identifier>[,..] - Declares and initialises one or more single-precision variables. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIZEOF * - syntax: SIZEOF(byte|shortint|longint|address|single|string|<ident>) where <ident> is the name of a variable, array, structure type or structure variable (not a SUB, function or external variable). - A size in bytes is returned. - The intention is the same as that of C's sizeof() operator. - SIZEOF is most useful when allocating memory for structures. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIN - syntax: SIN(n) - Returns the sine of n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SLEEP - syntax: SLEEP - This command puts a program to sleep until there is mouse, menu or keyboard activity. The program will also be woken up by IntuiTicks (timer signals from a user-defined window or default screen window) at regular intervals (every ~0.1 of a second) so your program can perform other tasks. - If SLEEP is called when the current output window is a CLI/shell, SLEEP returns control to your program immediately. - Once a window loses the "focus" SLEEP waits indefinitely. If this is likely to happen, you might want to use the SLEEP FOR command instead. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SLEEP FOR * - syntax: SLEEP FOR <seconds> - Suspends execution of a program for the specified number of seconds, which can be a single-precision floating point value greater than 0 (including values between 0 and 1). - This command does NOT use a busy waiting method. Instead it relies upon the dos.library Delay() function to delay execution in a system-friendly way, without hogging CPU time. - The smallest practical value for <seconds> is 0.02 since there are 50 ticks per second and 50*0.02 = 1 tick. Any value less than 0.02 will therefore cause SLEEP FOR to return immediately. This would have the same effect as busy waiting which hogs CPU time. To see the effect of various values of <seconds> run the following program with the system tool PerfMon running: WHILE INKEY$="" SLEEP FOR n '..where n is <seconds> WEND - You should notice that as <seconds> approaches zero, CPU time looks more like it would if you had used the above loop without SLEEP FOR at all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOUND - syntax: SOUND period,duration[,volume][,voice] - Note that the syntax of this command is different from the equivalent statement in AmigaBASIC. - See the sound section in ace.doc for details. - See also the WAVE command. A combination of these two commands in ACE allows you to easily play sound samples (see example program play.b). - SOUND currently uses the audio hardware directly but a future enhanced version will use the audio device. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPACE$ - syntax: SPACE$(n) - Returns a string of n spaces. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPC - syntax: SPC(n) - This function is generally used in conjunction with PRINT and returns a string of n spaces, where n is a value from 0 to 255. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SQR - syntax: SQR(n) - Returns the square root of n. - The argument n must be >= 0. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STICK - syntax: STICK(n) - Returns information about joystick direction. - At the moment, STICK(0) & STICK(1) always return 0, while STICK(2) & STICK(3) return the state of the joystick in port 2 (B), where: STICK(2) is joystick B in X direction. STICK(3) is joystick B in Y direction. - Return values are: 0 = joystick is not engaged. 1 = movement is upward or to the right. -1 = movement is downward or to the left. - STICK currently goes straight to the hardware. A future revision may use the gameport device. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STOP - This is functionally equivalent to END in ACE. - See also IF..[ELSE]..END IF. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STR$ - syntax: STR$(n) - Returns the string representation of the numeric value n. - The string includes a leading space or "-" depending upon the sign of the number. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STRIG - syntax: STRIG(n) - Returns information about the state of a joystick button. - At the moment, STRIG(0), STRIG(1) & STRIG(2) always return 0. - STRIG(3) returns -1 if the port 2 joystick's fire button is *currently* pressed and 0 if it isn't. - STRIG currently goes straight to the hardware. A future revision may use the gameport device. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STRING * - syntax: STRING <ident> [[ADDRESS <addr>] | [SIZE <size>]][,..] - Declares and initialises one or more string variables with an optional size or address. If the size is not specified, a length of MAXSTRINGLEN bytes is assumed. - If an address is specified, the SIZE option can't be used since the size of the area of memory pointed to by <addr> has already been determined. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STRING$ - syntax: STRING$(I,J) or STRING(I,X$). - STRING$ returns a string of length I consisting of characters with ASCII code J or ASC(MID$(X$,1,1)). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STRUCT * - Defines a new structure data type, thus: STRUCT <ident> <type> <ident1> <type> <ident2> . . <type> <identN> END STRUCT where <type> can be BYTE,SHORTINT,LONGINT,ADDRESS,SINGLE, STRING and <ident1>..<identN> are structure members of one of these data types. - A structure member may also be another structure. In this case, <type> must be the name of a previously defined structure type. See ace.doc's "Structures" section for more about this. - Where a member is of type STRING, an optional size can be specified (STRING <ident> [SIZE <size>]). - See also: DECLARE and the section on structures in ace.doc. - Structures have been provided in ACE primarily to make communicating with the operating system a little nicer and to make dynamic data structures possible (see the example programs turtle/bst.b and misc/linkedlist.b). - ACE structures cannot currently be array elements although there is nothing to stop you from storing structure start addresses in array elements. For an example of this, see prgs/misc/array_of_structs.b. - See "Structures" section in ace.doc for more details. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STYLE * - syntax: STYLE n - Changes the text style for the current output window (user-defined window or shell). - The single parameter can take on the following values: n Effect - ------ 0 Plain 1 Underlined 2 Bold 4 Italic 8 Extended width (non-shell/CLI window only) - These values can be added to produce cumulative effects (eg: n=3 gives bold and underlined text). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUB..END SUB - syntax: SUB [<type>] <ident> [([<type>] <param> [..])] [EXTERNAL] <statement1> <statement2> . . <statementN> END SUB where the optional <type> is one of: LONGINT,ADDRESS, SHORTINT,SINGLE or STRING. - In ACE, subprograms are non-static, allow recursion, may have return values and have optional parameter lists. - Parameters are call-by-value but ACE does provide mechanisms for call-by-reference parameters. - SHARED variables are supported in ACE (see SHARED command). - Note that since ACE SUBs are non-static, the STATIC keyword is not allowed. - The optional EXTERNAL keyword makes the subprogram visible to other ACE modules. - See "Subprograms" section in ace.doc for more details. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWAP - syntax: SWAP <object>,<object> where <object> is a simple/external variable, parameter, array element, structure or structure member. - This command swaps the value of the specified data objects. - SWAP is not intended to be used for exchanging two whole arrays. - ACE currently assumes a maximum length of MAXSTRINGLEN when swapping strings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYSTEM - syntax 1: SYSTEM n where n is an integer exit value (return code). - SYSTEM causes an ACE program to exit with the specified return code. The latter can be tested in a shell script as WARN, ERROR etc. This value is hidden from a Workbench launched program. - Note that in AmigaBASIC, SYSTEM returns from the interpreter to the shell/CLI or Workbench. The same is true in ACE, except that END and STOP will also do this, so SYSTEM's intended purpose in ACE is different to that in AmigaBASIC. OR - syntax 2: SYSTEM command-string - This version of the SYSTEM command attempts to run a shell/CLI command. It is equivalent to the following dos.library command: Execute(command-string,stdin,stdout). - If the command writes to standard output, make sure you are running the program from a shell/CLI or at least that you have given the EXTERNAL stdout variable a valid value corresponding to an open file's handle, typically a CON: or RAW: window (see HANDLE function). - Also, make sure that "Run" is in your C: directory. - Examples: SYSTEM "list" '..lists files in current directory SYSTEM "dir > fred" '..runs dir command and redirects '..output to a file called fred. OR - syntax 3: SYSTEM - This *function* returns the Exec library version, enabling your program to do different things depending upon the version of the operating system under which it is running. - A value of 34 indicates Workbench 1.3 while 37 indicates Workbench 2.04. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAB - syntax: TAB(n) - Used in conjunction with PRINT to move the print position to the nth column. - TAB(n) - where n=1..81. - if n>81, wraparound will occur in a DOS window while a user-defined (Intuition) window/screen will clip any output past the last character position. - if n<1, the next print position will be column 1 (leftmost). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAN - syntax: TAN(n) - Returns the tangent of n. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIME$ - syntax: TIME$ - Returns the current time as a string of the format: hh:mm:ss where hh is hours, mm is minutes and ss is seconds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIMER - syntax: TIMER - Returns a single-precision value corresponding to seconds elapsed since midnight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIMER ON .. - syntax: TIMER ON|OFF|STOP - These commands are used for enabling, disabling and suspending ON TIMER(n) event trapping. - See the Event Trapping section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRANSLATE$ - syntax: TRANSLATE$(<string-expression>) - Returns the phoneme-string equivalent of <string-expression> where the latter contains words. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TURN * - syntax: TURN n - Rotates the turtle by n degrees. - If n is negative, the turtle will rotate counter-clockwise while if it is positive, the rotation will be clockwise. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TURNLEFT * - syntax: TURNLEFT n - Rotates the turtle counter-clockwise by n degrees. - If n is negative, the result will be the same as TURNRIGHT ABS(n). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TURNRIGHT * - syntax: TURNRIGHT n - Rotates the turtle clockwise by n degrees. - If n is negative, the result will be the same as TURNLEFT ABS(n). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UCASE$ - syntax: UCASE$(<string-expression>) - Returns <string-expression> with all alphabetic characters in upper case. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VAL - syntax: VAL(X$) - Returns the numeric value of X$ as a single-precision number. - The translation of integers plus fixed-point and exponential format single-precision values is supported. - The hexadecimal and octal prefixes (&H and &O) are also recognised by VAL. - VAL strips off leading whitespace (eg: spaces, tabs). - There may be a loss of accuracy if the string contains a LARGE long integer value, due to the limitations of the single-precision numeric format. To overcome this, use the LONGINT(n) function. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VARPTR - syntax: VARPTR(<data-object>) - Returns the absolute address of a numeric variable, string, array, array element, structure, structure member, external function or subprogram. - You can safely use VARPTR to find a string variable's address (SADD has also been provided for string variables and expressions). - Unlike AmigaBASIC, an object's address does not move around in memory once allocated. - In ACE, the symbol "@" can be used instead of VARPTR, eg: addr& = @n(2) '..finds address of an array element - When used in conjunction with a structure variable x, @x will return the address of the variable itself, NOT the start address of the structure (see "Structures" in ace.doc for more). - See also section on indirection operators in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WAVE - syntax: WAVE voice,SIN | [waveform-address,byte-count] - Defines a waveform of any length to be used by the SOUND statement for a specified audio channel (voice: 0..3). - If the SIN option is used, a sine waveform table is allocated to the specified channel. This is the default waveform for the SOUND statement. - Unlike AmigaBASIC, the number of bytes in the waveform table must be specified when SIN is not used. - See also the Sound section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHILE..WEND - syntax: WHILE <condition> . . WEND where <condition> is an expression which reduces to a boolean (true/false) value. - Statements inside the WHILE and WEND are executed while the <condition> is true (ie: non-zero). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOW - syntax: WINDOW id,[title-string],(x1,y1)-(x2,y2)[,type][,screen-id] where screen-id specifies the screen to which the window should be attached and type can be a combination of the following (31 is the default if type is not specified): Type Effect ---- ------ 1 Window size can be changed via sizing gadget. 2 Window can be moved about using the title bar. 4 Window can be moved from front to back using the Back gadget. 5 Under Release 2.x of the OS, when this Type value is specified alone or as a component of larger Type value (eg: 7,15,23) a zoom gadget is added to the window allowing it to be switched between the two most recent window sizes. 8 Close gadget added to window. 16 Contents of window reappear after it has been covered. 32 Window will be borderless. - The window-id must be from 1 to 9. - Note that if the rectangle as specified in the WINDOW command is too large (according to screen mode), the window won't open. - See also ERR. OR - syntax: WINDOW(n) - This function returns information related to ACE windows. WINDOW(0) - window-id of the selected output window. WINDOW(1) - window-id of current output window. WINDOW(2) - present width of current output window. WINDOW(3) - present height of current output window. WINDOW(4) - x-coordinate in current output window where next pixel will be plotted. WINDOW(5) - y-coordinate in current output window where next pixel will be plotted. WINDOW(6) - max legal colour-id for current output window. WINDOW(7) - pointer to Intuition Window for current output window. WINDOW(8) - pointer to Rastport of current output window. WINDOW(9) - pointer to AmigaDOS file handle for current output window (non-zero for shell/CLI only). WINDOW(10) - foreground pen in current output window. WINDOW(11) - background pen in current output window. WINDOW(12) - font width for current output window. WINDOW(13) - font height for current output window. - See the section on Windows in ace.doc for more details. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOW CLOSE - syntax: WINDOW CLOSE id - Closes the id'th window if it is open. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOW ON .. * - syntax: WINDOW ON|OFF|STOP - These commands are used for enabling, disabling and suspending ON WINDOW event trapping. - See the Event Trapping section in ace.doc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOW OUTPUT - syntax: WINDOW OUTPUT id - Makes the id'th open window the current output window. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRITE - syntax: WRITE #filenumber,expression-list where filenumber corresponds to an open file. - The expression-list can contain any combination of data items (constants, variables) of any type separated by commas. - Note that the form of WRITE allowing for screen output is not supported by ACE. - See PRINT# re: the treatment of CHR$(0) in file I/O by ACE. - See also INPUT# and the section on files in ace.doc. - See also ERR. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- XCOR * - Returns the turtle's current x-coordinate. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YCOR * - Returns the turtle's current y-coordinate. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- XOR - Boolean operator: X XOR Y. X Y Out ----------- T T F T F T F T T F F F