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BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver. All rights reserved. ORDER INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------- If you find BasicBasic useful registration is requested. Through December 31, 1992, you will automatically receive TWO updates for your registration fee. The registration fee is $30.00. Please state the version of the software that you currently have(if you have the most recent version we begin your upgrades with the next release) and whether 3 1/2 high density, 3 1/2 low density or 5 1/4 high density diskettes are needed. Illinois residents add 6.25% sales tax. Foreign orders in US funds only. Foreign orders add $5.00 for extra postage. Send check or money order to: Mark Davidsaver 213 S. Park Street Bishop Hill, Il 61419 or phone with MC/Visa orders to: (309) 927-3303 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary ................................ 2 Getting Started Quickly ................ 3 BasicBasic Basics ...................... 5 Windows Metacommands ................... 7 Metacommands ........................... 8 Statement and Function Reference ....... 9 Graphics Programming for Beginners .... 31 Programming Buttons ................... 36 Programming Menus ..................... 38 Communications Programming ............ 40 Windows and Graphics .................. 41 Windows and Fonts ..................... 44 Chaining and Common ................... 48 Default Windows Font................... 49 (386 Enhanced Mode Font information) Errors ................................ 51 Keyboard codes ........................ 53 1 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver SUMMARY ------------------------------------------------------- BasicBasic is an easy to program, Basic-like language for DOS or Windows. BasicBasic creates EXE files which can be run under DOS or Windows. BasicBasic supports both graphics and text screens. BasicBasic contains a subset of Microsoft Basic as well as many new commands unique to BasicBasic. BasicBasic is an easy way to develop small to medium size programs without regard for which environment they will run under. BasicBasic supports mouse and buttons in both DOS and Windows and Menus in Windows. Several commands from more advanced Basics are also included (such as the DIR$ function and binary file I/O from Microsoft Professional Basic). Programs written for BasicBasic can run under either DOS or Windows. The compiler, itself, may run under either DOS or Windows. In addition to BasicBasic you will need a source editor for the environment you are running under. BasicBasic accepts source from standard ASCII files. Here is a list of statements and functions the BasicBasic compiler recognizes. Refer to the detailed description later on for the exact syntax recognized. ABS ADDSUBMENU ASC ATN BEEP CBUTTON CHAIN CHR$ CIRCLE CLOSE CLS COLOR COMMON COMSTATI COS CREATEFONT CSRLIN DATA DATE$ DBUTTON DIM DIR$ DLEN EOF FIELD FIX FONT FONT$ FOR..NEXT FREEMEM GET GET # GOSUB..RETURN GOTO IF..THEN..ELSE INKEY$ INPUT INPUT # INPUT$ INSTR INT KILL LEFT$ LEN LET LINE LINE INPUT # LOC LOCATE LSET MAINMENU MENUITEMGRAY MENUITEMON MID$ MKDIR MOUSEB MOUSEON MOUSEX MOUSEY ONPAINT OPEN OPEN "COMn:" PAINT PALETTE POINT POS POSITION POINT PRINT # LPRINT PRINT USING PUT PUT # LPRINT USING PRESET PSET OSTYPE RADIOON RADIOOFF RANDOMIZE READ REM RESTORE RETURN RIGHT$ RMDIR RND SCREEN SCROLLAREA SELECTFONT SETERRLEVEL SIN SPACE$ STOP STR$ STRING$ SYSTEM TAB TAN TIME$ TIMER UCASE$ VAL WRITE # and the operators + - / * \ ^ AND OR 2 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver GETTING STARTED QUICKLY ------------------------------------------------------- The easiest way to run BasicBasic is to have all required files in one directory. If you are not going to be running or compiling under either DOS or Windows you do not need the files specific to them. BasicBasic files required for each operating environment are: FILE USE _____ __________________________________ BB.EXE \_ required to compile under DOS BB12.STB / BBLIB12.EXE _ runtime required to run application under DOS WBB.EXE \_ required to compile under Windows BB12.STB / WBBLIB12.EXE _ runtime required to run application under Windows WBB.FON - Fonts required to support graphics screens under Windows. You may also want the provided sample programs. (SAMPLE1.BAS, SAMPLE2.BAS, etc.) Before compiling a program you must have the Source in an ASCII file. Most word processors have an option to allow reading/writing of ASCII files. Windows Write, for example, allows you to save in Text Only format which is ASCII. When opening ASCII files you must be sure to tell Write to NOT convert file to Write format. Several sample programs are provided to let you get started quickly. The sample programs have file names of the format SAMPLEnn.BAS. SAMPLE1.BAS SAMPLE2.BAS\__ Basic examples using text screens SAMPLE3.BAS/ SAMPLE4.BAS SAMPLEB1.BAS SAMPLEB2.BAS __ Examples utilizing buttons SAMPLEB3.BAS SAMPLEG1.BAS SAMPLEG2.BAS\__ Graphic examples SAMPLEG3.BAS/ 3 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver SAMPLEG4.BAS SAMPLEM1.BAS -- Menu example To compile a program under DOS type BB. When requested enter the file name you want to compile. If no extension is given the compiler will assume .BAS. You can also enter the file name you want to compile as part of the start command. e.g. BB SAMPLE1.BAS. The executable file created will have the same name as the source file. Under Windows you must compile using the program WBB.EXE. You may install this in a group with the Program Manager or run WBB seperately. When compile is completed you may either execute the program or restart to compile another program. IMPORTANT! Whether you are compiling under DOS or Windows only one EXE file will be created. This file will have the same name as the source file with an extenstion of .EXE. This EXE file can be executed under either DOS or Windows as long as the appropriate runtime module is present (BBLIB12.EXE for DOS or WBBLIB12.EXE for Windows). If you are using graphics screens running under Windows you will also need the file WBB.FON. DOS programs require the presence of BBLIB12.EXE to run and Windows programs require the presence of WBBLIB12.EXE to run. If this runtime library file is not found an error message will be returned (In Windows the absence of WBBLIB12.EXE is indicated by 4 short beeps and the program does not execute. You might also get the 4 short beeps if you are running a program directly from the compiler and do not have enough memory. In this case exit the compiler and run the compiled program seperately.). If you are running Windows 3.1 in 386 Enhanced Mode and using text only screens see the section on Default Windows Font for important information on using different font sizes. 4 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver BasicBasic Basics ------------------------------------------------------- BasicBasic is intended to be a subset of Microsoft Basic. More statements and functions will be added with each release. Depending on your religion you may or may not be happy to see that GOTO is supported. BasicBasic's syntax is 'almost' the same as Microsoft's Basic. Here are some known syntax differences: BasicBasic scans expressions from left to right the same as Microsoft Basic, however, BasicBasic checks all multiplies before divides and all minus signs before addition. BasicBasic does not support the underscore (_) line extension character. Most functions and statements have the same syntax as Microsoft Basic. You should check the Statement and Function Reference section for details on syntax. Date types supported are integer (% suffix), long integer (& suffix), single precision (no suffix), and string ($ suffix). Double precision numbers are not supported in this version. BasicBasic does not support a standard array of size 10. Every array must be explicitly dimensioned with a DIM statement. CAPACITIES General limits: Maximum number of arrays: 100 Total open files: 10 Total string space: approx. 47000 chars. Maximum character string size: 2048 Maximum Buttons: 40 Windows only limits: Maximum menus: 6 Maximum Items in a menu: 10 Maximum Fonts Defined: 10 RESERVED WORDS All names of statements and functions are reserved words and may not be used as variable names. ERR is a special 5 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver case. This is a system wide variable used to return error information to BasicBasic programs. See the command SETERRLEVEL for more complete information. 6 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver WINDOWS METACOMMANDS ------------------------------------------------------- BasicBasic contains several Metacommands to set Windows environment parameters. These commands have no affect on execution of the program. All Windows Metacommands have the following format: REM WINDOWS command REM WINDOWS NAME name The window name which the program will display can be supplied. The default is the same as the file name of the program. e.g. REM WINDOWS NAME investments REM WINDOWS size x1,y1,x2,y2 This command allows you to define a portion of the normal DOS screen size as the area to be displayed in the Windows window. This is useful if you have a program centered in the standard 80x25 DOS screen, but do not use much of the border area. Regular scrolling may not work in windows if you define the window size as less than 80x25. X1 is the left column, y1 is the top row, x2 is the right column, and y2 is the bottom row. e.g. e.g. REM WINDOWS SIZE 10,10,70,15 7 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver METACOMMANDS ------------------------------------------------------- metacommands are preceded by REM and a dollar sign. INCLUDE: This metacommand allows you to include source from another file in the currently compiling file. files may be nexted up to 10 levels deep. e.g. REM $INCLUDE: moretext.asc 8 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver STATEMENT AND FUNCTION REFERENCE ------------------------------------------------------- Here is a brief description of available functions and statements. More detailed information on those not unique to BasicBasic can be found in standard Basic reference books. ABS(numericexpression) This function returns the absolute value of the numeric expression. ADDSUBMENU menunumber,stringexpression,keycode This command is ignored in DOS. Addsubmenu adds an item to a pull down menu with the text stringexpression. When the user selects this menu item the keycode will be returned at the next INKEY$ function call. See the section 'Programming Menus' for more details ASC(string expression) This function returns a numerical value which is the ASCII code for the first character of string expression. ATN(numeric expression) This function returns the arctangent of a numeric expression. BEEP This statement sounds the ASCII bell character. CBUTTON "name",keycode,0,"type",0,left,top,xsize,ysize, forecolor,backcolor This command defines and creates a button on screen. This command is DOS and Windows compatible. In screen mode 0 left,top,xsize,ysize are in character units. In 9 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver graphics screen modes these must be supplied in pixel units. The name is the text which will be displayed in the button. When you define a button you must define the keycode which will be returned when that button is pressed by the user. Legal button types are "Radio", "Push" or "Invisible". Left, top, xsize, ysize define the position and size of the button(in character position). Radio buttons may have a foreground and background color defined. If these are left 0 then the default colors will be used. In DOS the colors are also used for Pushbuttons. When the user presses the button the indicated keycode will be returned to the INKEY$ function. If a button is pressed while executing the INPUT command the input will be ended, but the keycode will not be returned until a subsequent INKEY$ function is called. Instead of using the mouse to press the indicated button, the user can also press the keyboard key which returns the indicated keycode. Any key may be defined for a button. See the section "Keyboard codes" for a list of codes recognized by BasicBasic. As an example the uppercase letter 'A' would be the keycode 65. Extended keycodes are indicated by adding 1000 to the second part of the code. For example F1 would be 1059, or F10 would be 1068. e.g. CBUTTON "Exit",1068,"Push",0,1,1,8,1,7,4 Creates a push button on the top line. Because it is a Push button the color values are ignored in windows, but used in DOS. See RADIOON and RADIOOFF for instructions on checking/unchecking radio buttons. See the section "Programming Buttons" for more detail on programming buttons. Note that while CBUTTON creates a button it will not respond to the mouse button until the function MOUSEON has been issued. CHAIN filespec This command transfers control from the current program to another program. COMMON may be used to pass variables between programs. Files are left open when transfering to another program. See the section 'Chaining and Common' for more details. 10 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver e.g. CHAIN "TEST2.EXE" CHR$(numeric expression) This function returns the ASCII code for the numeric expression. The returned code is one character. CIRCLE [STEP](x1,y),radius,[color],[start],[end],[aspect] This statement draws a circle, ellipse, or pie section on the graphics screen. (x,y) are the screen coordinates of the center of the figure. Radius is the radius in pixels. Start and End are angles in radians. Omiting these results in a complete circle or ellipse. You may use Start,End to draw arcs or pie sections. A complete circle has a start randian of 0 and an end radian of 6.2832. If start or end are negative the value is converted to a positive number for purposes of drawing the arc, but then a line is drawn from the center of the figure to the end point of the arc. PIE figures may be draw in this way. Example of a complete circle, radius 50, color blue SCREEN 8 CIRCLE (100,100),50,1 Example of pie figure, filled in SCREEN 8 CIRCLE (100,100),50,1,-.01,-2 PAINT (102,98),1,1 Aspect can be used to adjust the ratio of y radius to the x radius. By default BasicBasic sets aspect to a number to create round circles for the type of screen being used. CLOSE #filenumber This statement terminates I/O to the indicated filenumber. Only one number allowed for each CLOSE command. 11 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver CLS This statement clears the screen. If a scrollable area has been define the entire screen is still cleared. COLOR foreground,background The format of this statement varies depending on the screen mode you are in. MODE 0 This statement sets the screen colors to the indicated foreground and background colors. Color values are: 0 - Black 1 - Blue 2 - Green 3 - Cyan 4 - Red 5 - Magenta 6 - Brown 7 - White 8 - Gray 9 - Light Blue 10 - LIght Green 11 - Light Cyan 12 - Light Red 13 - Light Magenta 14 - Yellow 15 - High intensity white Foreground values can be 0 through 15 and background values can be 0 through 15. MODE 8,9 The first argument (foreground color) is a color attribute. The second argument(background color) is a screen color. For Windows programs see the section WINDOWS AND GRAPHICS for additional information on the COLOR statement. MODE 12 Only one argument is used. The first argument (foreground) color is a color attribute. In this mode to change the background color for the entire screen use the PALETTE command to change the definition of color attribute 0. MODE 1000 12 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver This mode is only supported under Windows. The first argument (foreground) is a color attribute. The second arguement (background) is a color attribute. In this mode to change a palette color you must use the PALETTE command. COMMON variablelist Common passes variables to a chained program. Variablelist is a list of variables and arrays whose contents will be preserved when Chaining to a new program. Only 'blank' common is supported. A blockname is not allowed. the SHARED attribute is not allowed. Arrays are indicated by blank parenthesis. See the section 'Chaining and Common' for more details. e.g. COMMON A,B,A$,B$() COMSTATI(comnum) This function returns the status of a communications port. 8 bits of data are returned. These are defined as follows: bit 7 = Data Carrier Detect 6 = Ring Indicator 5 - Data Set Ready 4 - Clear to Sent 3 - Break Detect 2 - Framing Error 1 - Parity Error 0 - Overrun Error e.g. a=COMSTATI(1) COS(n) This function returns the cosine of an angle expressed in radians. CREATE FONT Allows creation of fonts in Windows. See section WINDOWS AND FONTS for a description of this command. 13 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver CSRLIN This function gets the current line position of the cursor(starting with 1). In graphics mode 1000 the pixel line position is returned (starting with 0). DATA This statement is used in conjuction with the READ statement to input numeric or string constants. DATE$ This function returns a string of ten characters corresponding to the current computer date. DBUTTON keycode This statement erases a button from the screen (using currently define colors) and disables input from it. The keycode should be the same as that used in the CBUTTON command. See the section "Programming Buttons" for more information on buttons. DIM variable(subscripts),... Defines arrays. There is no default array size of 10 in BasicBasic. Every array must be defined. SHARED is not supported. DIR$(path,[type]) or DIR$ This function returns file names. If no type is specified or type is set to 0 then file names not including system and hidden will be returned. If no path is specified then the next name using the previous search path will be returned. Type may be set to a non-zero value to return the names of special classes of files. 14 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver type file type 1 Read Only files 2 Hidden files 3 System files 5 Directories 6 Archive bit set DLEN (string) This function returns the length in pixels of a string. It is intended for use in Windows graphics mode but also works in DOS graphics mode. EOF(filenumber) This function tests for end-of-file. FIELD #filenumber,fieldwidth AS stringvariable... This statement allocates space for variables in random-access file buffer. The filenumber is the number under which the file was opened. Fieldwidth is a number indicating the length of the field and string variable is the name of the field. Multiple fields can be defined at once. e.g. OPEN "TEST.DAT" FOR RANDOM AS #1 FIELD #1,18 AS NAME$,18 AS ADDRESS$ LSET NAME$="FRED SMITH" LSET ADDRESS$="1 MAIN STREET" PUT #1,1 CLOSE #1 FIX(numeric expression) This function returns the integer representation of the value in numeric expression. -n.x returns n-1 if x>0. FONT(n) This function returns information about a Windows font. See the section WINDOWS AND FONTS for a complete description of this function 15 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver FONT$(n) This function returns information about a Windows font. See the section WINDOWS AND FONTS for a complete description of this function. FOR..NEXT FOR counter=start TO end [STEP increment] Defines a program loop. FREEMEM This function returns the amount of global memory available to other programs. GET (x1,y1)-(x2,y2),arrayname This statement gets a range of pixels from the graphics screen and puts them into an array. The may be placed back on the screen using the PUT statement. In BasicBasic only one set of pixels may be stored in each array and storing begins with the first element of the array. e.g. DIM A%(100) GET (100,100)-(109,109),A% It is important that you dimension the array large enough to hold the pixel data. You can calculate the space required as follows: size=int(((totalpixels*bits/pixel)+1)/8)+100 Where size is in bytes. Each element of an integer array takes up 2 bytes. GET #filenumber,recordnumber,variable$ This statement allows input of data from BINARY files. Recordnumber is an absolute byte position in the file. 16 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver The first byte of the file is number 1. GOSUB label This statement causes a branch to a subroutine. GOTO label This statement causes a jump to another program location. IF...THEN...ELSE Permits conditional execution depending on evaluation of expression. INKEY$ This function returns a character from the keyboard. INPUT[;]["promptstring"{;|,}] variablelist Executing this statement causes the program to pause and wait for input. A promptstring may optionally be printed before pausing for input. If a comma is used after the promptstring or if no prompt string is specified a question mark is displayed before waiting for input. If INPUT is followed by a semicolon, then no carriage return line feed is performed after the Enter key is pressed. INPUT #filenumber,variablelist This statement reads items from an open file to the given variables. When inputting data leading spaces will be ignored. INPUT$(n,port) This function returns a string of n characters from a communications port. If n characters are not available 17 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver the function will WAIT for that many characters to arrive. To avoid 'hanging up' your program use the LOC function to find how many characters are waiting. If a communications error occurs the number of characters returned may be less than what you requested. In this case use the function COMSTATI to determine what error occured. See the section "Communications Programming" for more details. INSTR([start],expressiontosearch,searchforexpression) This function searches for the first occurence of searchforexpression in expressiontosearch and returns the position at which the match is found. If no match is found then 0 is returned. INT(numericexpression) This function returns the largest integer less than or equal to numericexpression. KILL stringexpression This command deletes the file whose name is in stringexpression. LEFT$(stringexpression,n) This function returns a string of length n from the left part of stringexpression LEN(stringexpression) This function returns the number of characters in stringexpression. LET May optionally be used before assignment statements. e.g. LET I=3 18 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver LINE [STEP](x1,y1)-[STEP](x2,y2),[color],[B],[BF] This command draws a line, box, or filled box on the graphics screen. The (x1,y1), (x2,y2) arguments are the end points of the line. If a color is not specified the current foreground color will be used. The 'B' option draws a box. BF draws the box and paints the interior. LINE INPUT #,filenumber,stringvariable This statement inputs an entire line from a file. Input continues until the next carriage return. LOC(filenumber) This function returns the current absolute byte position within a file. For a communications port it returns the number of received characters waiting in the receive buffer. LOCATE row,column,[cursor] Positions the cursor on the screen. If cursor is set to 0 then the cursor is turned off. In graphics mode 1000 row, column are pixel positions (starting with 0) rather than character positions (starting with 1). LPRINT expressionlist [,|;] Prints the items in expression list. See PRINT for a more complete description. LPRINT USING formatstring; expressionlist[,|;] The formatstring tells how to print the items in expressionlist. See PRINT USING for a description of format string items. LSET stringvariable=string expression This command puts data into a random access file buffer. 19 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver The buffer must be previously defined by a FIELD statement. The data is left justified in the field. e.g. OPEN "TEST.DAT" FOR RANDOM AS #1 FIELD #1,18 AS NAME$,18 AS ADDRESS$ LSET NAME$="FRED SMITH" LSET ADDRESS$="1 MAIN STRING" PUT #1,4 CLOSE #1 MAINMENU stringexpression,stringexpression... This command is ignored in DOS. This command defines the main menu bar for Windows. Up to six sub menu names may be specified. If less than six are defined, blank strings must be present. See the section 'Programming menus' for more detail. e.g. MAINMENU "File","Color","Options","","","" MENUITEMGRAY keycode This command is ignored in DOS. This command 'grays' a submenu item. While gray the item cannot be selected by the user. See the section 'Programming menus' for more detail. MENUITEMON keycode This command is ignored in DOS. This command enables a submenu item. When enable a user may select this menu item. MID$(stringexpression,n,length) This function returns a string composed of length characters starting with character n in stringexpression. MKDIR stringexpression This command creates a directory specified by stringexpression 20 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver MOUSEB This function returns information on whether mouse buttons are pressed. Bit 0 is 1 if left button is pressed. Bit 1 is 1 if right button is pressed. Bit 2 is 1 if middle button is pressed. e.g. b=mouseb b=b and 2 if b<>0 then print "right button is pressed." end if MOUSEON This function intializes the mouse. It returns a -1 (true) if a mouse is present. It returns 0 if no mouse is present. This function must be issued before the mouse can be used in both DOS and Windows. e.g. mouseflag=mouseon MOUSEX This function returns the x position of the mouse in character units (1 through 80) for screen mode 0 and in pixel units (0 through top) in all other screen modes. e.g. x=mousex MOUSEY This function returns the y position of the mouse in character units (1 through 25) for screen mode 0 and in pixel units (0 through top) in all other screen modes.. e.g. y=mousey ON PAINT line number This statement defines a subroutine which handles screen updates. This statement is ignored in DOS. This statement is optional in Windows. See the section on Windows and Graphics for more detail. 21 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver OPEN filename FOR mode [ACCESS access] AS # [LEN=reclen] This command prepares the file filename for access as number #. The filename can be a file name with or without a pathname. Modes supported are INPUT, OUTPUT, APPEND, BINARY, RANDOM. INPUT, OUTPUT, APPEND are for sequential files. RANDOM is for random-access files with fixed length records. BINARY can be used to access any byte of any file. Access types supported are READ, WRITE, or READ WRITE. This argument is optional and is only valid for BINARY and RANDOM files. READ WRITE is the default. If you specify READ you will get an error if you try to access a file marked as read-only by DOS. LEN is used for random access files. It is the record length. This argument is optional. 128 is the default. e.g. OPEN "TEST.DAT" FOR INPUT AS #1 e.g. OPEN "TEST.DAT" FOR RANDOM ACCESS READ AS #1 e.g. OPEN "TEST.DAT" FOR RANDOM ACCESS READ WRITE AS #1 e.g. OPEN "T.DAT" FOR RANDOM AS #1 LEN=128 OPEN "COMn: speed,parity,data,stop" FOR RANDOM AS #n LEN=n This statement opens and initializes a communications port. COM1 and COM2 are supported. Supported speeds are 9600, 4800,2400,1200,and 300. Parity may be either E,O,N, or M. Data may be either 5,6,7, or 8. Stop may be either 1, 1.5, or 2. LEN is used to specify the size of the input buffer. The default is 128 bytes. For Windows programs a minimum of 2048 is suggested. Only PRINT # will output characters to an open communications port. Only INPUT$ will receive characters from a port. Communications parameters may be omitted; however, their position must be marked by commas. Default parameters are 300 baud, No parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit. e.g. OPEN "COM1: 2400,E,7,1" for random as #1 len=2048 See the section "Communications Programming" for more details. 22 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver OSTYPE This function returns a number indicating what operating system the program is running under. 1 - DOS 2 - Windows 3.x 3 - ? PAINT [STEP](x,y),[paint],[border] This statement fills a graphics area with the color selected. (x,y) is the first point filled. It will be filled with the color specified by the attribute 'paint', if supplied. If not supplied the foreground color is used. Coloring in all directions continues until the 'border' color is encountered. If border color is not supplied the paint color is used. PALETTE attribute,color This statement allows you to change the default graphic colors provided by BasicBasic. The usage of the attribute and color arguments depends on the screen mode you are in. You can always find out your current screen mode using the SYSTEM function. For Windows programs see the section on WINDOWS AND GRAPHICS for additional information on the PALETTE statement. Here are the definition of the arguments for various screen modes: screen color. MODE 8 Attribute determines which one of the 16 color attributes you want to redefine. It is the attribute you select with the COLOR statement. In this mode you have 16 colors to choose from (0 to 15). See the COLOR statement for a listing of the colors. MODE 9 Attribute determines which one of the 16 color attributes you want to redefine. In this mode you have 64 colors to choose from (0 to 63). MODE 12 23 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver In this mode attribute determines which one of the 16 color attributes you want to redefine. In this mode the color value reflects an exact RGB definition of the color you want. If you use a variable for color it must be of type long integer. color= 65536 * blue + 256 * green + red Where blue, green, red can be from 0 to 255. POINT (x,y) This function returns the color of the specified graphics pixel. POS(0) This function returns the current column position of the cursor(starting with 1). In graphics mode 1000 this function returns the pixel column (starting with 0). POSITION x1,y2,xlen,ylen This statement sizes and positions a window. x1,y1 are the upper left of the window. This statement is ignored in DOS. PRESET [STEP](x,y),[color] This command sets one pixel on the screen to the specified color. By using the STEP prefix you can specify that the x,y coordinates are relative to the current position. If no color is supplied the pixel is set to the background color. PRINT expressionlist [,|;] Prints the items in expression list. PRINT with no expression results in a blank line being printed. If the expression is followed by a semi-colon (;) the next print starts immediately following this one. If the expression ends in a comma (,) the next print starts at the next print position. Print positions are at columns 1, 15, 29, etc. 24 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver PRINT USING formatstring; expressionlist[,|;] The formatstring tells how to print the items in expressionlist. Any text may be in formatstring. BasicBasic only recognizes three format characters. These are pound sign (#) comma (,) and period (.). Each time a number character is found (#) one item from the expression list will be printed. e.g. PRINT USING "The answer is: ###,###.##";number PRINT #filenumber,expressonlist Prints to a file or communications port the items in expression list. PSET [STEP](x,y),[color] This command sets one pixel on the screen to the specified color. By using the STEP prefix you can specify that the x,y coordinates are relative to the current position. If no color is supplied the pixel is set to the foreground color. PUT (x,y),arrayname,action This statement places pixels stored in an array onto the screen. (x,y) is the upper left position. The x and y length placed on the screen depends on the GET statement which stored the data into the array. The action may be one of the following: XOR - Combines the pixels in the array and those on the screen using the XOR operator. This is the most common action used for motion since this automatically restores the background when done twice. XOR is the default. PSET - Transfers data erasing what is already on the screen. PRESET - Inverts data and transfers to screen erasing what is already on the screen. 25 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver AND - Masks screen image with data in array. OR - Superimposes data on existing screen. For Windows use see the section WINDOWS AND GRAPHICS for more information. PUT #filenumber,recordnumber,stringexpression PUT #filenumber,recordnumber This statement is used to output data to a file opened in either BINARY or RANDOM mode. In BINARY mode the string expression will be written to the file at the byte location given by recordnumber. Recordnumber is the absolute byte number to be written, where the first byte of the file is 1. e.g. A$=SPACE$(20) PUT #1,100,A$ (writes 20 bytes starting at 100) In RANDOM mode the data in the output buffer will be written to the record number indicated. e.g. PUT #1,1 (writes to record 1) RADIOON keycode This command 'checks' the indicated Radio button. See the section "Programming Buttons" for more information. RADIOOFF keycode This command 'unchecks' the indicated Radio button. See the section "Programming Buttons" for more information. RANDOMIZE This statement initializes the random number generator. If you use the RND function you probably want to preceed it's use with the RANDOMIZE statement. Otherwise everytime your program runs you will get the same sequence of 'random' numbers. This statement has no arguments. 26 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver READ variablelist Inputs a value from a DATA statement. REM Denotes a comment line and is ignored by the compiler. RESTORE label Sets position that next READ statement will input data from. RETURN Returns program execution to location immediately after last GOSUB. RIGHT$(stringexpression,n) This function returns a string of length n from the right part of stringexpression RMDIR stringexpression This command removes the directory given by stringexpression. RND This function returns one in a sequence of random numbers between 0 and 1. SCREEN mode[,palette] This statement selects the screen mode. The actual screen mode available depends on your hardware. The modes available in this version of BasicBasic are: 27 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver 0 - Text Only. This is the default. 2 - 640-200 Graphics. Black and white only. 80 x 25 text format. (CGA, EGA, VGA) 8 - 640-200 Graphics. 16 colors and 16 attributes 80 x 25 text format (EGA,VGA) 9 - 640-350 Graphics. 16 colors and 16 attributes 80 x 25 text format (EGA,VGA) 12 - 640-480 Graphics. 256,000 colors and 16 attributes 80 x 30 text format (VGA) 1000 - Special Window mode. Supports whatever graphics resolution Window supports. Supports custom fonts. Issueing a SCREEN 1000 under DOS results in selection of the highest available graphics mode (2, 8, 9 or 12). The Palette argument is ignored under DOS. Under Windows it allows you to select the special BasicBasic palette if set to 16, or to select the 'system palette' if set to 0. If the Palette argument is omitted then the default is 0, use the system palette. See the section WINDOWS AND GRAPHICS for more detail. Here are examples of how the SCREEN command might be used under Windows. SCREEN 8 -- system palette SCREEN 8,0 -- system palette SCREEN 8,16 -- special BasicBasic palette If you do not know the output capabilites of the machine your program is going to run on, use the SETERRLEVEL command to determine if a screen mode has been successful. Here is an example: SETERRLEVEL 5 ERR=0 SCREEN 12 IF ERR>0 THEN ERR=0 SCREEN 9 IF ERR>0 THEN ERR=0 SCREEN 8 IF ERR>0 THEN PRINT "GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE." STOP END IF END IF END IF 28 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver The SCREEN command resets SCROLLAREA to entire screen. SCROLLAREA leftx,topy,rightx,bottomy This statement defines an area of the screen which is used for scrolling. This allows you to create fixed text or buttons in one area of the screen while scrolling another area. In screen modes less than 1000 Leftx, topy, rightx, bottomy are in character units and are inclusive(starting with 1). In screen mode 1000 leftx, topy, rightx, bottomy are pixel units(starting with 0). Executing the CLS command will clear the entire screen, not just the scrollable area. PRINT CHR$(12); will only clear the scrollable area. SETCOM comnum,"Speed,Parity,Databits,Stopbits,dtr,rts" This statement allows you to change communications parameters for an already opened communications port. Speed, Parity, Databits, and Stopbits are described in OPEN COM. DTR may be either ON or OFF. If ON then the output data terminal ready signal will be set high. ON is the default. RTS may be either 1 or 0. If 1 then the output request to send is high. 1 is the default. Communications parameters not present will not be changed; however, a comma must mark their positions. e.g. SETCOM 1,",,7" Sets number of data bits to 7. e.g. SETCOM 1,",,,,OFF" Turns Data terminal read;y off. See the section "Communications Programming" for more information. SETERRLEVEL level This command defines what BasicBasic should do in case of runtime errors. Level must be a number (not an expression or variable). Level 7 causes execution to halted for all errors. Level 5 causes execution to 29 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver continue for recoverable errors. In the latter case the global variable ERR is set to the error number. ERR may be reset with the statement: ERR=0. ERR will be reset each time an error occurs so the program must check ERR immediately after statements which may produce errors. SIN(x) This function returns the sine of an angle expressed in radians. SPACE$(N) Returns a string of n spaces. STOP Causes the program to cease execution. STR$(numericexpression) This function returns a string representation of the numbericexpression. STRING$(m,stringexpression) This function returns a string of length n. This string is composed of the first character in stringexpression. SYSTEM (n) This function returns information on the screen depending on the value of n passed to it. This information is of most use to Windows programs. n function returns --- ---------------------------------- 1 Maximum x allowed in a graphics program 2 Maximum y allowed in a graphics program 3 Actual maximum screen size x 4 Actual maximum screen size y 5 Maximum color attribute 30 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver 6 Maximum 'background color' in COLOR statement 7 Current screen mode 8 Window left position 9 Window top position 10 Window x size 11 Window y size 12 Returns 1 if window is Active Window, 0 otherwise. See WINDOWS AND GRAPHICS for more information on uses of this value. TAB(numericexpression) In PRINT or LPRINT statements positions output at column position given in numericexpression. TAN(x) This function returns the tangent of an angle expressed in radians. TIME$ This function returns a string representation of the current system time. TIMER This function returns the number of seconds since midnight. UCASE$(stringexpression) This function converts all lower case characters in stringexpression to upper case and returns as new string. VAL(stringexpression) This function returns the numeric value of string stringexpression. 31 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver WRITE #filenumber,expression list Write is performs the same way as Print with these exceptions: 1) Commas are inserted between all items; 2) Strings are bracketed by quotation marks. BasicBasic does not support using the Write statement to display on the screen. 32 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver GRAPHICS PROGRAMMING FOR BEGINNERS ------------------------------------------------------- This section will show you the basics of graphics programming in BasicBasic. The examples given will work equally well running under DOS or Windows. Now here is your first graphics program: SCREEN 2 LINE (0,0)-(400,100) INPUT Z This program draws one diagonal line on the screen. The key to graphics programming is the SCREEN command. You must issue a SCREEN command to tell BasicBasic that you are going to do graphics. Screen 2 puts your screen into a graphics mode with 640 dots (pixels) across and 200 dots down. Each dot is either white or black. Most of our examples will use SCREEN 8, which has the same number of dots, but 16 colors. If you are running on a CGA display, SCREEN 2 is the only graphics mode available, so you will have to adjust these examples. The second line in our example contains the LINE statement. The LINE statement will do much more than make lines. It will also create boxes and fill them with a color if you want. Here is another program: SCREEN 8 LINE (0,0)-(400,100),4,B INPUT Z This program puts the hardware into a 16 color mode and then creates a box with red lines. The 'B' at the end of the statement is what tells it to make a box. Notice that the diagonal line is not drawn on the screen. Instead the end points in the statement are used as the opposing corners of the box. The 4 specifies the color red. You could also do the following: SCREEN 8 LINE (0,0)-(400,100),4,BF INPUT Z This program has 'BF' instead of 'B' in the LINE statement. The 'BF' says to draw a box and then fill it with the same color. Of course you can also use a variable in place of the numeric constants we have used so far: SCREEN 8 FOR I=0 TO 15 33 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver X=I*10 Y=I*5 MYCOLOR=I LINE (X,Y)-(X+10,Y+10),MYCOLOR,B NEXT I INPUT Z This creates a series of boxes. If you are tired of sharp corners try this: SCREEN 8 CIRCLE (100,100),50,4 INPUT Z As you might expect this draws a circle. The center of the circle is at 100,100; it has a radius of 50 and is drawn in red(the 4). The CIRCLE statement will do much more than draw circles; it will also draw arcs and pie sections. Try this: SCREEN 8 CIRCLE (100,100),50,4,0,3.1416/2 INPUT Z This draws a quarter circle (an arc) starting to the right and finishing up at the top. To do this we are added 2 more arguments to the CIRCLE statement; 0 and 3.1416/2. These are the start and end angles in radians of the arc. There are 2pi radians in a circle. Don't remember this from high school? Just remember that 0 is to the right; 3.1416/2 is up, 3.1416 is left, and 4.7124 is down. Putting a minus sign before the start and end angles cause BasicBasic to draw a pie section. SCREEN 8 CIRCLE (100,100),50,4,-.01,-2 INPUT Z This draws a pie section slightly greater than a quarter circle. The CIRCLE statement does not have a fill option like the LINE statement. If you want to fill your pie section with a color you should use the PAINT statement. This is a very versatile statement. You use it like this: SCREEN 8 CIRCLE (100,100),50,4,-.01,-2 PAINT (102,98),4,4 INPUT Z Now we have a red pie section. Paint starts filling the screen with color starting with the center point given and proceeding to the border color. Notice that we made our 34 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver center point different than 100,100 to make sure it was inside the pie section we previously drew with the CIRCLE command. We could have a blue pie section with red border with the following: SCREEN 8 CIRCLE (100,100),50,4,-.01,-2 PAINT (102,98),1,4 We will mention one last statement in this introductory discussion. This is the PSET statement. It allows you set individula pixels on the screen. SCREEN 8 FOR I=1 TO 100 MYCOLOR=INT(RND*16) X=INT(RND*640) Y=INT(RND*200) PSET (X,Y),MYCOLOR NEXT I INPUT Z The preceeding program 'splatters' 100 randomly placed pixels on the screen. They also have random color. We won't discuss them here but other statements useful in graphics programming are: PRESET GET PUT COLOR PALETTE Refer to the graphics programming examples SAMPLEG1.BAS, SAMPLEG2.BAS, SAMPLEG3.BAS and SAMPLEG4.BAS for more ideas on graphics programming. 35 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver PROGRAMMING BUTTONS ------------------------------------------------------- Buttons can be used in either DOS or Windows. Buttons do not require the presence of a mouse. Here is an example of a valid create button command: CBUTTON "EXIT",1068,0,"Push",0,1,1,8,1,7,4 Here is a description of each parameter: EXIT - This is the name displayed in the button 1068 - This is keycode for F10 (User can either use mouse to push button or press F10. 0 - Reserved Push - Type of button. 'Radio' is the other type. 0 - Reserved 1 - Left position 1 - Y position 8 - x size (in characters) 1 - y size (in characters) 7 - foreground color (In Windows only used for Radio buttons). 4 - background color (In Windows only used for Radio buttons). In DOS a push button will have text centered and if the defined text size is at least 2 characters smaller than the button size a line will be drawn around the outside. In graphics modes button position and size is given in pixel units rather than character units. Remember that if a mouse is going to be used it MUST be turned on with the MOUSEON function before it can be used to press a button. Here is an example of a small program which uses buttons: A=MOUSEON IF A=-1 THEN CBUTTON "EXIT",1068,0,"PUSH",0,70,1,8,1,0,0 ELSE 36 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver CBUTTON "F10-Exit",1068,0,"PUSH",0,70,1,10,1,0,0 END IF INPUT Z a$=INKEY$ PRINT LEN(A$) This program displays different text in the button depending on whether a mouse is present or not. Assuming there is a mouse this program will end under the following conditions: - User presses EXIT button with mouse - User presses F10 on keyboard - User presses ENTER key on keyboard. In the first two cases the print will show a length of 2 for the length of A$ since the button keycode will be returned on the next INKEY$ after the INPUT is terminated. Once you have created a button you are responsible for NOT writing anything to that area of the screen. If you do the button will be erased. If you are using buttons and scrolling text on the screen make sure you use the SCROLLAREA command to protect the button area of the screen. INVISIBLE buttons can be particularly useful. An invisible button does not appear on the screen, but a button push inside it's defined area will return it's keycode just as if it were. This allows you to create your own special color buttons or input areas. For instance you could have a series of INPUT statements in a program and each could be defined as an invisible button. When the user clicked on that input area you would get a unique keycode which would direct your program to the section of code which handles that input. Since buttons end INPUT commands you can also use invisible buttons to define any keys you want to end INPUT commands (e.g. UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW). 37 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver PROGRAMMING MENUS ------------------------------------------------------- Menus are not supported in DOS. Menu commands are ignored when running under DOS. Menus support in BasicBasic is much like button support. When the user selects a menu item a defined keycode is returned to the Basic program. Menu keycodes are returned only using the INKEY$ function call. However, if the user selects a menu item while the program is waiting for input in an INPUT command the input command will be terminated just as if the user had pressed Enter. Then on the next INKEY$ call the keycode for the menu item will be returned. KEYCODES: Just as in buttons keycodes can be regular or extend keys. Extended keys are indicated by adding 1000 to the regular keycode. F10 would be 1068. See the Appendix 'Keyboard codes' for a complete list. The mouse must be enable with the MOUSEON command before any menu items will be recognized. Here is an example of a simple Windows program which utilizes menus. y=mouseon mainmenu "Color","","","","","" addsubmenu 1,"Black",1059 addsubmenu 1,"White",1061 backcolor=0 menuitemgray 1059 50 cls color 1,backcolor locate 10,30 print "Sample text.."; 100 a$=inkey$ if a$="" then goto 100 if len(a$)=1 then goto 100 if right$(a$,1)=chr$(59) menuitemon 1060 menuitemgray 1059 backcolor=7 goto 50 elseif right$(a$,1)=chr$(60) menuitemon 1059 menuitemgray 1060 backcolor=0 goto 50 end if 38 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver goto 100 This program defines one menu and then adds two items to it. These menu items allow the user to clear the screen to either black or white. The program disables the menu item for whatever color the screen currently is. The menu could be define in the following way also. mainmenu "&Color","","","","","" addsubmenu 1,"&Black",1059 addsubmenu 1,"&White",1061 The apersand (&) allows you to define which character in the menu will be underlined which allows the user to select this item by pressing the ALT key and this letter. This IS NOT the keycode which will be returned to your program. This keycode will always be the one given as the last parameter of the addsubmenu command. We could also define the menu like this: mainmenu "&Color","","","","","" addsubmenu 1,"&Black",1059 addsubmenu 1,"",0 addsubmenu 1,"&White",1061 The 3rd line (addsubmenu 1,"",0) creates a line seperator in the menu bar. It can not be selected by the user. 39 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAMMING ------------------------------------------------------- Here is a brief example of using a communications port. rem rem open communications port rem OPEN "COM1: 2400,N,8" FOR RANDOM AS #1 LEN=2048 100 rem rem get input from communications port rem t = LOC(1) IF t > 0 THEN a$=input$(t,1) if len(a$)>0 then rem come here to display received characters PRINT a$; ELSE rem come here if some kind of comm error that kept rem us from getting the waiting character. end if END IF rem rem get input from keyboard rem b$ = INKEY$ IF b$ <> "" THEN PRINT #1, b$; END IF GOTO 100 40 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver WINDOWS AND GRAPHICS ------------------------------------------------------- In general programming graphics under Windows is the same as programming graphics under DOS. However, because Windows mediates hardware access among different programs there are a few differences. COLORS Under DOS or Windows, BasicBasic provides a palette of 16 colors. Under DOS this palette is the hardware palette and you have full control to change them (depending on mode using either the COLOR or PALETTE statements). Under Windows the palette is a 'logical' palette and only Windows controls where in the physical palette the logical palette entries are placed. In addition, if you are running under standard VGA or less, Windows will not let you change the colors in the palette. You are restricted to the 16 colors Windows defines. BasicBasic defaults to using the system palette. This is a palette of 16 colors which Windows never changes. This also means that your program cannot change them with the PALETTE or COLOR(in mode 8) commands. If you want to change the standard colors you will have to use a 'logical' palette. In BasicBasic you do this using the SCREEN command. Using a logical palette has benefits and drawbacks. As mentioned you can change the colors display. This may be of use in animation. However, there are serious drawbacks. The PUT with any option except PSET will not work correctly. This is explained below. Also, when your program is not the 'active' window, Windows may remove your colors from the hardware palette resulting in some strange looking displays. In addition, if this happens, the PAINT command may have completely unforseen consequences. You can use the SYSTEM function to determine if your program is the active program. When your program is active your colors will all be available for your use. Logical palettes do not support using the PUT graphics statement with the XOR, OR, or AND options. If you use XOR the colors will not be as expected (though, as usual if you do 2 PUT statements with XOR the background will be restored). The reason for this is that Windows may 'map' the logical palette entries to the physical palette anyway it likes. If you must use XOR, use the default BasicBasic palette which is the system palette. 41 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver SCREEN MODES Under Windows you have access to the same screen modes as under DOS. The COLOR and PALETTE statements work the same under DOS as under Windows. In addition under Windows you have access to an additional screen mode: mode 1000. In mode 1000 you are able to create new fonts. Mode 1000 gives you the highest possible graphics resolution. Also the COLOR command is somewhat more flexible than under DOS screen modes. The LOCATE and SCROLLAREA statements and functions POS, CSRLIN work differently in this mode. NAKED WINDOWS When running under Windows you do not have exclusive access to the screen. At any time your window may be hidden by another window appearing on the screen. At some future time the operator may make your window reappear with the click of the mouse button. When your window has been hidden and is then called to the front, Windows DOES NOT handle putting the contents of the window back in! All windows privides is the outline of the window. This 'naked' window must be filled in by either BasicBasic or your program. By default BasicBasic handles all window 'repainting'. BasicBasic remembers everything that your program sends to the screen and when necessary repaints the window with this information. In text mode (screen mode 0) a small buffer remembers each character on the screen. In graphics mode BasicBasic maintains a larger buffer containing a duplicate of each pixel on the screen. This buffer can take up quite a bit of space.(On a 640 x 200 16 color display this requires 128,000 bytes). Ordinarily you don't need to worry about this. If your program isn't going to be in memory very long, or has a small window, who cares? If you are short of memory or have a very large window which is going to stay around all day you may not like this arrangement. In this case you should use the ON PAINT statement. This statement tells BasicBasic to NOT keep a copy of the display; that you are going to handle repainting when necessary. Here is an example: ON PAINT GOSUB 1000 SCREEN 8 sc=8 gosub drawmyscreen 50 if inkey$="" then goto 50 STOP 42 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver 1000 gosub drawmyscreen RETURN drawmyscreen: is sc=0 then return locate 1,1 print "Now is the time to draw circles..." circle (50,50),25,4 circle (75,75),50,1 circle (400,50,40,2 circle (500,100,75,3 return Here are some rules to remember about using the ON PAINT statement: - Use it before your SCREEN statement. BasicBasic creates the screen duplicate during the SCREEN statement. It will, if necessary, erase it during the ON PAINT statement, but why go to the bother. - NEVER use any input commands, file commands, com commands, etc in you ON PAINT handler. - Don't change variables in your ON PAINT handler that are used elsewhere in your program. Remember that Windows ALWAYS calls your ON PAINT handler at the WORST POSSIBLE TIME! - It is wise not to use the INPUT command in a program that has it's own ON PAINT handler. BasicBasic will not rewrite what has been input so far. - Your ON PAINT handler may be called IMMEDIATELY after you issue the ON PAINT command. Make sure you are ready. Note the line IF SC=0 THEN RETURN in our example. Try running this program without this line. 43 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver WINDOWS AND FONTS ------------------------------------------------------- To create fonts in Windows you must have selected Screen mode 1000. In this mode some statements and commands work differently. LOCATE x,y now position by dot position, rather than character position. POS and CSRLIN return the corresponding pixel position rather than character position. You may create up to 10 fonts, number 1 through 10. Font number 0 is reserved for BasicBasic's default font. You create a font using the CREATEFONT command. Once you have created a font you must select it with the SELECTFONT command. You may get information on the currently selected font using the FONT and FONT$ functions. The CREATEFONT statement has a lot of arguments. However, it is not as complex to use as it looks. Usually you are only interested in specifying one or two things about the font; such as height. In this case you can set all other arguments to 0. Below is a complete description of the CREATEFONT command. CREATEFONT p1,p2,p3,p4,p5,p6,p7,p8.p9.p10,p11.p12,p13,p14,p15$ p1 = Font number to be created. A number from 1 to 10. p2 = Font height (in pixels). Desired height of characters. This specifies the line spacing. p3 = Font width Desired width of characters. Usually set to 0 p4 = escapement Which way the text goes. 0 - right 900 - up 1800 - right to left 2700 - down p5 = orientation 0 = Normal 900 = tipped 90 degrees to the left 1800 = upside down 2700 = tipped 90 degrees to the right p6 = weight 0 = don't care 100 = thin 200 = extralight 300 = light 400 = normal 500 = medium 44 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver 600 = semibold 700 = boldface 800 = extra bold 900 = heavy p7 = italic When nonzero this specifies italics p8 = underline When nonzero this specifies underlining p9 = strikeout p10 = character set 0 = ANSI character set 1 = SYMBOL character set 2 = Japanese Kanji 3 = OEM character set -> Most Windows fonts are OEM fonts (e.g. script) p11 = output precision Specifies how Windows should attempt to match desired font sizes and characters with actual fonts. Not currently defined. Make 0 p12 = clip precision Not currently defined. Make 0. p13 = quality Instruction to Windows on how to match fonts. 0 - Default Quality. Don't make bigger that desired. 1 - Draft Quality. 2 - Proof Quality. This is the best quality, but size may be smaller than desired. p14 = pitch and family The two low order bits specify the pitch of the font. 0 = Default 1 = Fixed pitch 2 = Variable The four high order bits specify the font family. 0 = don't care &H10 = Roman &H20 = Swiss &H30 = Modern &H40 = Script &H50 = Decorative p15$ = "face name" This is the name of the typeface. You do not need to specify this. If you do it takes priority over any other options you specify (such as height). Examples of face names are COURIER, TMS RMN, etc. Here is an example of a CREATEFONT command which creates a font 60 pixels high. All other parameters are left at default. 45 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver CREATEFONT 1,60,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,"" To print with this font you would first have to select it. SELECTFONT 1 When you create a font Windows tries to match the characteristics you specify in the CREATEFONT command. It may not be able to in all cases. Perhaps you specify an incompatible height and width. In these cases Windows gets as close as it can. If some parameter is important to your application you should check to make sure the font you created meets your requirements. Using the FONT function you can examine the selected font. FONT(n) n returns --- ---------------------------------------------- 1 character height 2 Ascent 3 Descent 4 Internal Leading 5 Extern Leading 6 Average Character Width 7 Maximum Character Width 8 Weight 9 Italic 10 Underline 11 Strikeout 12 First character 13 Last character 14 Default character 15 Break character 16 Pitch and Family 17 Character set 18 Overhang 19 Digitized Aspect x 20 Digitized Aspect y There is another function which will return the face name. FONT$(n) n returns --- ---------------------------------------- 1 face name If you need additional information on fonts (or Windows programming in general), a useful reference is 'Windows API Bible' by James L. Conger. 46 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver 47 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver CHAINING AND COMMON ------------------------------------------------------- Here are examples of two programs, CHAIN1 and CHAIN2, which pass variables back and forth in common. CHAIN1 common a,b,c,d$(),c() if a=0 then cls a=1 dim d$(10) dim c(20) d$(5)="This is d$(5)" end if print "press any key to go to chain 2" 100 a$=inkey$ if a$="" then goto 100 chain "chain2.exe" CHAIN2 common a,b,c,d$(),c() b=b+1 print "this is chain 2" print "b=";b; print d$(5) input z chain "chain1.exe" 48 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver DEFAULT WINDOWS FONT ------------------------------------------------------- The following discussion is current for Windows Version 3.1. The concepts discussed are applicable for Version 3.0, however, font file names are different for that version. This section is only relevant when running in screen MODE 0 (the default). BasicBasic selects the OEM Fixed font closest in size to the system font size used in menus, buttons, etc. If you desire a different font size when running a BasicBasic program you can select from available fonts in the System Menu. You may also mark a given font size to be the new default for that program. Depending on how you configured your system there may be only one OEM font installed. Windows 3.1 comes with an assortment of OEM fonts. The file DOSAPP.FON contains the fonts used by Windows to run DOS in a window and are good for use with BasicBasic. If this file is not in you windows system directory (e.g. WINDOWS\SYSTEM) then your can copy it from your distributions disks and then use the Control Panel Fonts accessory to install them (These fonts have the name 'MS-DOS CP 437'). IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR 386 ENHANCED MODE: If you use the MS-DOS prompt in 386 Enhanced mode you will need to make a change in your SYSTEM.INI file to use multiple size fonts in BasicBasic. As mentioned previously Windows does not normally permanently install the fonts from DOSAPP.FON. As was indicated you can do this from the Control Panel Fonts accessory. HOWEVER, you will find that each time you EXIT the MS-DOS prompt these fonts will be REMOVED from the system. This is because Windows does not expect these fonts to be present and there is a control line in SYSTEM.INI which explicitly tells it to load and unload them when running the MS-DOS prompt. Once you have installed these fonts you can keep Windows from un-installing them by removing the following line from the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI: WOAFONT=DOSAPP.FON FONTS AND BUTTONS: This discussion applies only to buttons which are defined by the user to be one line high. If you select a font smaller than the system font for use in a BasicBasic program the text in any buttons you have would be too crowded in the button space available. BasicBasic corrects this problem in one of two ways. 1) If you system font is only slightly larger than the font selected in BasicBasic then any text in the buttons will be made 49 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver all upper case so no 'descenders' will be outside the button area. 2) If the system font is quite a bit larger than the selected font then BasicBasic will not use the standard Windows button design. Instead it will draw a 'simplified' button which can hold the small text of the font. 50 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver ERROR MESSAGES ------------------------------------------------------- Compile errors will give a description of the problem and display the line where the error occurred. Runtime errors are divided into two classes. Fatal errors always cause execution of the program to cease. Recoverable errors cause program execution to cease if SETERRLEVEL is 7, overwise execution continues and the error number is placed in the system variable ERR. SETERRLEVEL 7 is the default. When runtime errors are displayed they are accompanied by a runtime address. The compiler will optionally output a list of runtime addresses for each statement. These addresses will be contained in a file with the same name as the source file and an extension of .TMP. In Windows you select debug output by selecting the Debug Output box. In the DOS version of the compiler you select debug output by putting a /D in the command line (e.g. BB MYPROG /D). Fatal Errors: error number description ------------ ----------- 236 Out of memory 503 READ is attempting to read wrong kind of data. 501 ... 522 Internal runtime errors. 523 Wrong number of array elements or array not dimensioned. 524 Out of free space. 525 Out of string space. Recoverable Errors: 1000 Error attempting to open file 1001 Attempt to read past end of file 1002 File not open 1003 File read error (probably hardware) 1004 ASC function on empty string 1005 Divide by zero 1006 Out of data during READ 1007 File already open 1008 No available file control block 1009 Error attempting to open file 1010 File mode error on read 1011 File mode error on write 1012 Bad file number 51 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver 1013 Path not found 1014 RMDIR error 1015 MKDIR error 1016 KILL error 1017 FILE BUFFER ERROR 1018 INVALID FIELD DATA 1019 FIELD OVERFLOW 1020 FILE ERROR 1021 COMMUNICATIONS OPEN ERROR 1022 CREATE BUTTON ERROR 1023 BAD SCREEN MODE IN SCREEN COMMAND 1025 GRAPHICS GET ARRAY ERROR 1026 GRAPHICS PUT ARRAY ERROR 1027 CREATE FONT ERROR 1028 NOT IN CORRECT SCREEN MODE 1029 INVALID COLOR/COLOR ATTRIBUTE 1030 ILLEGAL FONT NUMBER 1031 FONT NOT DEFINE 52 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver KEYBOARD CODES ------------------------------------------------------- The following table shows the key codes returned by the INKEY$ function. These key codes are returned as 1 byte. KEY DECIMAL KEY DECIMAL KEY DECIMAL KEY CODE KEY CODE KEY CODE ESC 27 BKSP 8 1 49 ! 33 TAB 9 2 50 @ 64 ENTER 13 3 51 # 35 SPACE 32 4 52 $ 36 5 53 % 37 6 54 ^ 94 7 55 & 38 8 56 * 42 9 57 ( 40 0 48 ) 41 - 45 _ 95 = 61 + 43 KEY DECIMAL KEY DECIMAL KEY DECIMAL KEY CODE KEY CODE KEY CODE A 65 a 97 B 66 b 98 C 67 c 99 D 68 d 100 E 69 e 101 F 70 f 102 G 71 g 103 H 72 h 104 I 73 i 105 J 74 j 106 K 75 k 107 L 76 l 108 M 77 m 109 N 78 n 110 O 79 o 111 P 80 p 112 Q 81 q 113 R 82 r 114 S 83 s 115 T 84 t 116 U 85 u 117 V 86 v 118 W 87 w 119 X 88 x 120 Y 89 y 121 Z 90 z 122 53 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver The following table shows the extended key codes returned by the INKEY$ function. These key codes are returned as 2 characters. In this case the first character will be 0. KEY DECIMAL KEY CODE ---- ------ F1 0 59 F2 0 60 F3 0 61 F4 0 62 F5 0 63 F6 0 64 F7 0 65 F8 0 66 F9 0 67 F10 0 68 CTRL-F1 0 94 CTRL-F2 0 95 CTRL-F3 0 96 CTRL-F4 0 97 CTRL-F5 0 98 CTRL-F6 0 99 CTRL-F7 0 100 CTRL-F8 0 101 CTRL-F9 0 102 CTRL-F10 0 103 SHIFT-F1 0 84 SHIFT-F2 0 85 SHIFT-F3 0 86 SHIFT-F4 0 87 SHIFT-F5 0 88 SHIFT-F6 0 89 SHIFT-F7 0 90 SHIFT-F8 0 91 SHIFT-F9 0 92 SHIFT-F10 0 93 HOME 0 71 UP ARROW 0 72 PGUP 0 73 LEFT ARROW 0 75 RIGHT ARR 0 77 END 0 79 DOWN ARROW 0 80 PGDN 0 81 INS 0 82 DEL 0 83 CTRL-HOME 0 119 CTRL-PGUP 0 132 CTRL-LEFT 0 115 CTRL-RIGHT 0 116 CTRL-END 0 117 CTRL-PGDN 0 118 54 BasicBasic is copyright (c) 1992 by Mark Davidsaver Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. 55