X11-BASIC

VERSION 1.14
(C) 1997-2007 by Markus Hoffmann
([email protected])
(see http://x11-basic.sourceforge.net/)
 X11-Basic is a comprehensive non-standard Basic interpreter with full X capability that in-
tegrates fratures like shell scripting, cgi programming and full graphical visualisation into the
easy to learn basic language on moden computers. The syntax is most similar to the old GFA-
Basic on ATARI-ST implementation. Old GFA-programs should run with only few changes.

About this document

This document describes the features of X11-Basic. You will find information about the X11-
Basic interpreter (the program xbasi under Unix or xbasi .exe under Windows) as well as
the language itself. For a more compact description you may want to read the x11basi (1)
man-page or the man-page of the X11-Basic pseudo compiler xb (1).
The latest information and updates and new versions of X11-Basic can be found at
http://x11-basi .sour eforge.net/.

2
Contents

1 ABOUT X11-Basic 1

2 Usage 3
2.1 Installing X11-Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 The X11-Basic Interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Using Syntax highlighting with nedit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 The pseudo compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.5 The WINDOWS Version of X11-Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.6 The ANSI-Basic to X11-Basic converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3 Getting Started 10
3.1 Introduction to this Dialect of BASIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2 Interpreter vs Compiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3 Your first X11-Basic program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.4 General Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.5 The very BASIC commands: PRINT, INPUT, IF and GOTO . . . . . . . . . 13
3.6 Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.7 Arithmetics and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.8 Program structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.9 Simple Input/Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.10 Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.11 Adress spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.12 Graphics: Drawing and painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.13 Reading from and writing to files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.14 Internet connections, special files and sockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.15 Data within the program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.16 Dynamic-link libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.17 Memory management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.18 Other features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

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Contents

4 Quick reference 64
4.1 reserved variable names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.2 Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3 Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.4 Graphic commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.5 Math commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.6 Math functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.7 String functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.8 Graphic functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.9 Other functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.10 Subroutines and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.11 Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

5 X11-Basic command reference 80

5.1 Syntax templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.2 A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.3 B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.4 C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.5 D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.6 E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
5.7 F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
5.8 G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
5.9 H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
5.10 I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
5.11 J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
5.12 K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
5.13 L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
5.14 M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
5.15 N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
5.16 O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
5.17 P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
5.18 Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
5.19 R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
5.20 S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
5.21 T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
5.22 U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
5.23 V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
5.24 W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
5.25 X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

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 Contents

6 Compatibility 419
6.1 General remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
6.2 GFA-Basic compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
6.3 Ideas for future releases of X11-Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Index 429

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Contents

iv
1 ABOUT X11-Basic

X11-Basic is a comprehensive non-standard Basic interpreter with full X capability that inte-
grates features like shell scripting, cgi programming and full graphical visualisation into the
easy to learn basic language on modern computers.
The actual implementation runs on Unix workstations (like HP/UX, DEC alpha and maybe
others) and Linux-PCs with the X-Window system. A MS-Windows version has been started.
Also Hand-held PC Versions or adaptations to VxWorks are actually been thought of.
X11-Basic is as well suited to novices as programming wizards, and is appropriate for
virtually all programming tasks. For science and engineering X11-Basic has already prooved
its capability of handling complex simulation and control problems. For system programs,
X11-Basic has high level language replacements for low level programming features that are
much easier to read, understand, and maintain. For all applications, X11-Basic is designed to
support rapid development of compact, efficient, reliable, readable, portable, well structured
programs.
The X11-Basic environment contains a library of GEM GUI functions. This makes writing
GUI programs in X11-Basic faster and easier than programming with native GUI tools.

Structured programming

X11-Basic is a structured programming language. Structure is a form of visual and functional

encapsulation in which multiple-line sections of program look and act like single units. The
beginning and end of blocks are marked by descriptive keyword delimiters. Lines within
blocks are generally indented to make the block visible.
Even if the interpreter is BASIC, there are restraints and extansions to it for a structured
programming with a better overall view. There are no line numbers and every line holds only
one instruction. Jumps with GOTO are possible but not necessary. All the well-known loops
are available including an additional command for discontinuation (–> EXIT IF). Procedures
and functions with return values of any type can be defined. So a program can contain a main
part to call the subfunctions, for example in side of a loop. Whole libraries can be added with
the merge command (–> MERGE).

1
1 ABOUT X11-Basic

Copyright information
X11-Basic is free software and distributed under the GNU License. Read the file COPYING
for details.

2
2 Usage
The X11-Basic interpreter is called xbasi (xbasi .exe under Windows). Under Unix it
is usually installed in the /usr/bin/ (if installed via the .rpm) or in /usr/lo al/bin (if
installed manually from the source package) path.

2.1 Installing X11-Basic

SuSE-Linux and RedHat
If you got a Redhat-Package (RPM) e.g. the File X11Basi -1.14-4.i386.rpm, then you can
install this package (beeing root) with rpm -i X11Basi -1.14-4.i386.rpm.
This is a very convienient way at least for the Linux distributions Feodora, SuSE and RedHat
(and many others) of installing the interpreter and its documentation, the X11-Basic pseudo
compiler xb , The bytecode compiler xbb , the bytecode interpreter (virtual machine) xbvm
and the ANSI-Basic to X11-Basic converter bas2x11basi , the man-pages and a small col-
lection of example programs.
After having done so, do a rehash, and then you can execute the interpreter with xbasi or
read the man pages with man xbasi or man x11basi .
The documentation will be installed in the /usr/share/do /pa kages/X11Basi / direc-
tory (at least on my system) and you can find the following files:
-rw-r--r-- 1005 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS -- a knowlegements
-rw-r--r-- 46 AUTHORS -- onta t addresses of the author
-rw-r--r-- 17982 COPYING -- opyright information
-rw-r--r-- 2960 INSTALL -- installation instru tions
-rw-r--r-- 1752 README -- short des ription
-rw-r--r-- 169 RELEASE_NOTES -- release notes
-rw-r--r-- 164366 X11-Basi -manual.txt -- the manual
drwxr-xr-x 1024 editors/ -- files for editors
drwxr-xr-x 1024 examples/ -- few example programs

Debian based distributions

As with Ubuntu linux the popularity of debian based linux distributions has dramatically in-
creased in the recent past. RPM is not used for debian based distributions. But with the RPM
to DEB converter alien, a .deb package can be created out of the .rpm files. If you hesitate
to do so, there are also ready-made debian packages available on various sources. You just

3
2 Usage

need to look for them on the internet. Al though they are maintained by third party volunteers,
the file system structure should be similar to what is described in the previous chapter, so you
should expect to find the same files at the same place.

Other linux and UNIX distributions

Maybe RPM is supported for your distribution, then you can follow the instructions above. If
not, you might look for a debian package. Also the existence of a package for HPUX is known
(unfortunately it contains the very old version 1.04 and seems not to be maintained any more).
So far (as I know) there exist no packages for any other system.
For all other systems you will have to get the source-package X11Basi -1.14.tar.gz and
compile the sources (which is very easy, by the way). This should work for all linux distri-
butions, and probably with little modifications also for HPUX, for DEC/alpha and FreeBSD
and maybe others. Also X11-Basic compiles on Cygwin, so you can use X11-basic even on
WINDOWS operating systems.
In order to compile X11Basic, you will need the following:

• A C compiler, preferably GNU C (but some ANSI C compilers, like DEC’s will do)

• a ‘csh’-compatible shell

• X11R5 or R6 libraries (for the graphics)

• the readline library

• the term ap library

These will suffice to get you started.

Unpack X11Basi -1.14.tar.gz with

tar xzf X11Basi -1.14.tar.gz

go into the X11Basi -1.14 directory and do a

sh ./install.sh

Thats all you will have to do (except for something goes wrong).
A xbasi binary will be compiled into the ./sr / directory

d sr /
make install

will copy the binary in ${HOME}/bin/.

If the ‘install.sh’ script fails, please contact me (kollousers.sourceforge.net) and send me
the output it generated (install.log). I am going to try to help you to fix the problem.

4
 2.1 Installing X11-Basic

make the pseudo-compiler work, libraries

If you want to use the pseudo compiler, the bytecode compiler and the virtual machine in-
cluded in this package, you have to make both the static and dynamic libraries.

d ./sr

If you do not have the file mathemati s. please do

p mathemat_dummy. mathemati s.
then:

Libraries
make lib will generate libx11basi .so
make x11basi .a will generate x11basi .a – now you have to be root –
make installroot will generate a dynamic linked binary of the interpreter, copy it to /bin/,
install the libraries in /usr/lo al/lib/, install the man-page

The compiler
make xb will make the X11-Basic compiler You can then (beeing root) do a
make xb install to install the compiler in /usr/lo al/bin/ and the compiler man-page
After doing all this, you will also find a xbasi .dyn executabe. This is the interpreter,
dynamically linked and much shorter.

The bytecode compiler and the virtual machine Both programs xbb and xbb are
new to this package. The idea is to increase the excecution speed of X11-basic programs a
lot by compiling it to a bytecode before execution. The bytecode then can be run much faster
with the bytecode interpreter, the so-called virtual machine. The conversion to bytecode is a
real compilation (in contrast to what the pseudo compiler xb does). The step to assembler
or machine code is not far. Also a conversion to C or to JAVA or any other language will be
straigt forward, although the code will practically not be readable to humans anymore. As
with JAVA, the bytecode is still platform independant and can be run on any system, which
has a virtual machine ported to.
One point to mention (whether this is a feature or a disadvantage): X11-basic bytecode can
not be converted back to source code (.bas).
Because this is a new feature which is incomplete and still has a lot of bugs the feature is
not incorporated into the interpreter xbasi itself.
Please try the bytecode compiler out and maybe you want to report errors etc.

5
2 Usage

Support
If you have trouble with X11-Basic, you may send me a mail or browse the faq.
If you have problems compiling X11-Basic under Unix, you should add the file install.log,
which is created by the install.sh-script and contains all the information needed to pin
down the error.
If you have trouble with some X11-Basic-command or program, you should create a min-
imum sample program to reproduce the error; please keep this sample program as small as
possible. Then take the program and send it to me. Add a short description of you problem,
containing:

• Which Operating system are you using: Windows (95, 98, me, xp, NT, 2000) or Unix
(linux, solaris, FreeBSD, HPUX ...) ?

• How does the program behave on your computer ? What did you expect ?

• Which version of X11-Basic are you using ? Please try the latest one ! You also might
want to fill in the bug report form.

2.2 The X11-Basic Interpreter

There are several ways to start the X11-Basic interpreter.
The simplest way is to just start it by the command xbasi . Then you can use the interpreter
in interactive mode. Just try to enter some X11-Basic commands.

2.2.1 Command line parameters

The X11-Basic Interpreter takes some command line parameters.
Command line parameters are as follows:

xbasic <filename> run Basic-Programm [input.bas℄

-l load only, don’t execute
-e < ommand> excecute basic command
eval <expression> evaluate numerical expression
daemon swich off prompting and echoing

The program does not insist on its name, the person installing can name it xbasi , x11basi
or any other name. However xbasi is the preferred name for the executable. When you start
the program without arguments it tells you the different options.

6
 2.3 Using Syntax highlighting with nedit

Examples:
xbasi testme.bas
xbasi -l dontrunme.bas
xbasi -e 'alert 1,"Hallo !",1," OK ",b'
xbasi --eval 1+3-4*3

2.2.2 X11-Basic as daemon

The commandline option daemon forces the interpreter to run in daemon-mode (with no
terminal connected). No prompt is given and the input is not echoed back.

Example:
To run the X11-Basic interpreter on a tcp-socket on port 1371 create a new user called xbasi
and insert
--- in /et /inetd. onf: ---
xbasi stream t p nowait xbasi /usr/sbin/t pd /bin/xbasi --daemon
--- in /et /servi es: ---
xbasi 1371/t p
---

Please note that this is not recommended since xbasic would open several security holes on
your system.

2.2.3 X11-Basic as shell

X11-Basic programs can be excecuted like shell scripts. Make sure that the very first line of
your X11-Basic program starts with the characters '#!' followed by the full pathname of the
X11-Basic inperpreter xbasic (e.g. '#!/usr/bin/xbasi '). This she-bang-line ensures, that
your Unix will invoke xbasic to execute your program. Moreover, you will need to change the
permissions of your X11-Basic program, e.g. hmod 755 myprog. After that your program
can simply be executed from your shell and the interpreter works in the background like shells
do.

2.3 Using Syntax highlighting with nedit

NEdit, the full featured, plain text Nirvana editor1 is a GUI style text editor for workstations
with the X Window System. NEdit provides all of the standard menu, dialog, editing, mouse
support, macro extension language, syntax highlighting, and a lot other nice features (and
1
http://nedit.org/

7
 2 Usage

Figure 2.1: The Nirvana Editor with syntax high-

lighting for a X11-Basic program.

extensions for programmers). In short, it has everything you want to develop your X11-Basic
programs.
If you like to use nedit as your favorite editor, a nedit.defs file comes with this package.
This enables syntax highlighting for X11-Basic programs in nedit (see fig. 2.1).

2.4 The pseudo compiler

The X11-Basic package is shipped with a pseudo compiler, which makes stand-alone binaries
out of Basic source code. Actually this "compiler" is not a real compiler, since the source code
is still interpreted on runtime. But the source code is linked to the X11-Basic library so there
results one independant executable. Another advantage is that it is quite hard to extract a full
running *.bas File from this binary since the code is compressd in a way.
You can find the compiler in examples/ ompiler/xb .bas. Yes, the compiler compiles
itself. Yust make sure you have built the shared library libx11basi .so and the library for
static linking before (make lib; make x11basi .a) and moved it to /usr/lib. Then do
xbasi xb .bas
Please note: If you link your programs dynamically, you will eventually have to compile
them again when the libx11basi .so will have changed due to a version update of your
X11-Basic package.
See the man page xb (1) for further information on the compiler.

2.5 The WINDOWS Version of X11-Basic

After you have run the setup program, X11-Basic can be invoked in three ways:

8
 2.6 The ANSI-Basic to X11-Basic converter

1. Choose "X11-Basic" from the start-menu: xbasi .exe will come up with a console
window and wait for commands to be typed in right away.

2. Click with the right mousebutton on your desktop. Choose "new" from the context-
menu that appears; this will create a new icon on your desktop. The context-menu of this
icon has three entries "Execute", "Edit" and "View docu" (which shows the embedded
documentation, if any); a double-click executes the program.

3. Create a file containing your X11-Basic-program. This file should have the extension
".bas". Double-click on this file then invokes X11-Basic, to execute your program.

2.6 The ANSI-Basic to X11-Basic converter

You now will find a simple ANSI-Basic to X11-Basic converter (bas2x11basi .bas) in the
examples/ ompiler/ directory. It helps convertig old (real) Basic Programs with line num-
bers and multiple commands per line to the X11-Basic structure. Because there are so many
different BASIC Version aroud, in most cases you will have to edit these files produced man-
ually. But most of the work will already have been done by this converter.
Example:

xbasi bas2x11basi .bas ansibasi .bas -o newname.bas

For further options try xbasi bas2x11basi .bas --help and read the man-page bas2x11basi (1).
A compiled version of the ANSI-Basic to X11-Basic converter is included in the RPM-
packages.

9
3 Getting Started
This chapter describes all you need to know to write your own programs in X11-Basic.

3.1 Introduction to this Dialect of BASIC

The programming language BASIC has been around since the 1960s. BASIC is an acronym
and it stands for Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. BASIC was originally
designd to be a programming language that is easy to use for a wide range of projects by
anyone. X11-Basic is a dialect of this but it is not a BASIC in its original form. It is more a
mix of classic BASIC with structured languages like PASCAL and Modula-2. The Syntax of
X11-Basic is oriented to the famous GFA-BASIC which was developped for the ATARI ST in
1985.
X11-Basic has a lot of features which make the language different from the original (ANSI-
Basic) intention. As with GFA-Basic these modifications help developing programs with hav-
ing a more structured look and which make use of the more modern graphical user interfaces
available on compunters since the mid 1980’s:

• one command or declaration per line for better readability

• variables and identifiers in general can have up to 250 characters to distinguish them
from each other

• data typing and arrays

• use of subroutines and functions

• powerful loop and program flow constructs

• file operations

• commands to directly access the OS

• commands for using X11-Windows graphics and a port of the AES from the ATARI ST,
allowing for easy use of graphics in your program

• commands for direct memory manipulation, allowing you to access the machine almost
as with machine language

10
 3.2 Interpreter vs Compiler

• possibility to merge source code for libraries and reuse

• a compiler is also available

3.2 Interpreter vs Compiler

X11-Basic programs (or scripts) are interpreted by default. This means the so-called inter-
preter takes each line of your code and looks what to do with it. The compiler does it differ-
ently, it will take your code once, translate it into directly executable machine code resulting in
a more speedy program execution as the step for command lookup does not appear anymore.
The compiled program just can be executed out of the box. The advantage of an interpreter
is that you can directly test and run your program without running a compiler first. This is
helpful while developing but of course a compiler is available as well allowing you to produce
rather fast machine code from your X11-Basic program.

3.3 Your first X11-Basic program

Open your favorite editor and type the following line of code into the editor.

PRINT "Hello X11-Basi !"

Now save the file as "’hello.bas"’ and run the interpreter with

xbasi hello.bas

X11-Basic should not complain. If it does, check carefully for typing mistakes. The Pro-
gram now should print out your hello message at the console or in the console window the
interpreter was started from. It will not return to the shell, but just prompt for aditional com-
mands. Now type

> quit

and you return to the shell.

Of course you can include the quit command in your hello.bas:

PRINT "Hello X11-Basi !"

QUIT

Now the program always returns to the shell promt when done.

11
3 Getting Started

3.4 General Syntax

Appending lines
Since for a structured programming language like X11-Basic each line must not contain more
than a single command, some restrictions apply for the program code.
With many editors a limitation on the maximal line length applies (e.g. 4096 charac-
ters/line). In X11-Basic a single command may in very rare cases consist of more than 4096
characters (e.g. by assigning an array constant to an array). Therfor a possibility of plitting
lines into two (or more) has been implemented. If the last character of a line is a '\' (it must
be really the last character of the line and may not be followed by a space character!), the
following line will be appended to this line by replacing the '\' and the following newline
character by spaces.
Example:

PRINT "Hello,"; \
" thats it"

will be treated as:

PRINT "Hello,";" thats it"

Please note: The '\' character must be placed at a position within the command where a
space would be allowed, too.

Comments
A comment can be inserted into your program code with the REM command or the abbrevia-
tion '. Also the '#' as a first character of the program line reserves the rest of the line for a
comment. Anything behind the REM will be ignored by X11-Basic.
The REM stands for remark and is a generic comment. Comment your programs and you
will be able to understand it later.
If you want to place comments at the end of a line, they have to be prefaced with '!'.
Example:

' This is a demonstration of omments

DO ! endless loop
LOOP ! with nothing inside

These end of line comments can not be used after DATA (and REM).

12
 3.5 The very BASIC commands: PRINT, INPUT, IF and GOTO

3.5 The very BASIC commands: PRINT, INPUT, IF and

GOTO
The PRINT-command is used to put text on the text screen. Text screen means your terminal
(under Unix) or the console window (under Windows). PRINT is used to generate basic
output, e.g. text, strings, numbers, e.g. the result of a calculation. Some basic formatting is
possible.
With the INPUT command you let the user input data, p.ex. numbers or text.
The IF command let the program do different things depending on the result of a calculation.
With GOTO you can branch to a different part of your program. GOTO, despite its bad
reputation ([goto considered harmful]), has still its good uses.
Besides these four very basic commands (which are really standard basic commands, and
you can already write very handy calculations with only these four commands) X11-Basic has
many more features which make life easier and your programs more user friendly.

3.6 Variables
Variables in BASIC programming are analogous to variables in mathematics. Variable identi-
fiers consist of alphanumeric strings. These identifiers are used to refer to values in computer
memory. In the X11-Basic program, a variable name is one way to bind a variable to a memory
location; the corresponding value is stored as a data object in that location so that the object
can be accessed and manipulated later via the variable’s name.
X11-Basic uses two scopes for variables: global (which is the default) and local.
Global variables can be modified from anywhere within the program, and any part of the
program may depend on it. A global variable therefore has an unlimited potential for creating
mutual dependencies, and adding mutual dependencies increases complexity. However, in a
few cases, global variables can be suitable for use. They can be used to avoid having to pass
frequently-used variables continuously throughout several functions, for example.
The use of global variables makes software harder to read and understand. Since any code
anywhere in the program can change the value of the variable at any time, understanding the
use of the variable may entail understanding a large portion of the program. They can lead to
problems of naming because a global variable makes a name dangerous to use for any other
local or object scope variable. A local variable of the same name can shield the global variable
from access, again leading to harder to understand code. The setting of a global variable can
create side effects that are hard to understand and predict. The use of globals make it more
difficult to isolate units of code for purposes of unit testing, thus they can directly contribute
to lowering the quality of the code.
Because of all this, X11-Basic also provides local variables, which live only within a certain
function or procedure and their context.
You can refer to a variable by giving its name in the place you want the value of the variable

13
3 Getting Started

to be used. X11-Basic will automatically know where to store the data and how to deal with
it. It is also important to tell X11-Basic what sort of data you want to store. You can have
variables that store only numbers but also variables that deal with a character or a whole string,
a line of text for example. The following valid line of X11-Basic code will create a variable
called x for you and assign it the value of 10.

x=10

You learn here 3 important things. First your variable has a name, x in this case, secondly
you state that you want to do something with this variable, an assignment with the = sign, the
last thing is what you want to do with this variable. You give it the value 10 here. Such an
assignment will overwrite any old data that has been stored before in that variable. As long as
you don’t assign a value to a variable, it will hold a default value, 0 in most cases.

3.6.1 Data types

Now how you see that this variable x stores a number? How does X11-Basic know that you
want to deal with a number? Easy - by the way the name of the variable has been written. To
distinguish between different ways of data types X11-Basic appends a special typing sign as
a suffix to the variable name to distinguish between several ways to store data in variables.
The X11-Basic interpreter uses 64-bit floating point variables, 32-bit integer variables, char-
acter strings and arrays of these variables of arbitrary dimension. A declaration of the variables
and of their type is not necessary (except for arrays –> DIM), because the interpreter recognizes
the type of the variable from the suffix: Integer variables have the suffix %, character strings a
$, arrays a (). Variables without suffix are treated as float. Pointers are integers, function calls
are marked by @. Logical expressions are also of type integer. It is important that variables
with a special suffix are different from those without.
The integers are not yet fully implemented. So please do not use them at the moment.

3.6.2 Variable naming

You can use all letters and numbers for your variable names. Spaces are not allowed but un-
derscores inside the variable name. In general X11-Basic can distinguish upto 64 characters1
per name. X11-Basic limits you only in the following ways: a variable may not begin with
a number or an underscore, only with letters. Avoid to name your variables like X11-Basic
commands. It will work but it can also cause troubles while typing. As a rule, never try to
assign values to X11-Basic system variables (like TRUE, FALSE, TIMER, PC, TERMINAL-
NAME$). The values indeed will be assigned, but you never can use the assigned values, since
always the internal values will be used.
Valid variable names look like the following: x, auto%, lives%, bonus1%, x_1, city_name$,
debit Invalid variable names look like this and X11-Basic will complain: _blank, 1x, ?value%,
1
Names of variables are limited to a number of characters or digits specified in defs.h (default 64).

14
 3.6 Variables

5s$. Always remember: begin your variable names with a letter from A-Z and you are on the
safe side!
Variable names and commands are case insensitive. Each name is bound to only one kind
of variable; A$ is a whole different variable(value) than A which is different from A(1,1) or
A$(1,1).
Space between commands will be ignored, but note that no space is allowed between the
name of a variable or command and the ’(’ of its parameter list. So, ASC("A") is good,
ASC( "A" ) also, but ASC ("A") isn’t.

Examples:

integer variables: i%=25

my_adr%=varptr(b$)
b%=mallo (100000)
float variables: a=1.2443e17
b=f(x)
character strings: t$="Hello everybody !"
fields and arrays: i%(),a(),t$(), [1,3,5;7,6,2℄

3.6.3 Strings and Arrays

String variables are sequences of characters. Strings generally contain ASCII text, but can
hold arbitrary byte sequences. Strings are automatically elastic, meaning they automat-
ically resize to contain whatever number of bytes are put into them. When a string
resizes, its location in memory may change, as when a longer string is assigned and
there is insufficient room after the string to store the extra bytes.

A wealth of intrinsics and functions are provided to support efficient string processing.

X11-Basic arrays can contain variables of any data type, including strings. All arrays,
even multi-dimensional arrays, can be redimensioned without altering the contents. A
special feature of X11-Basic is the implicit dimensioning of arrays and the existance of
array constants. You may define an array by using the DIM command. You might also
define the array by an assignment like a()=b() if b() already has been DIMed or by
a()=[1,2,3,4;6,7,8,9℄ asigning an array constant (In this example a 2 dimensional
array will be created and the rows are separated by ’;’).

15
3 Getting Started

3.7 Arithmetics and Calculations

X11-Basic handles numbers and arithmetic: You may calculate trigonometric functions like
SIN() or ATAN(), or logarithms (with LOG()). Bitwise operations, like AND or OR are available
as well as MIN() and MAX() (calculate the minimum or maximum of its argument) or MOD or
INT() (reminder of a division or integer part or a number). Many other statements give a
complete set of math functions.

3.7.1 Expressions and Conditions

Expressions are needed to calculate values. The simplest expression is a numerical or
string constant. More complex expressions may contain constants, variables, operators,
function calls and possibly parentheses. The expression format used by X11-Basic is
identical with that of many other BASIC packages: The operators have precedence of
the usual order and you can alter the order of operator evaluation using parentheses.
Here is an example numeric expression following after a PRINT statement:

PRINT (X-1)*10+SIN(x)

Conditions and expression are the same in X11-Basic, FALSE is defined as 0 and TRUE
as -1. Those definitions are defined in defs.h and could be changed, but that is not
recommended. Because BASIC doesn’t have seperate boolean operators for conditions
and expressions, using an boolean operator (AND,OR,XOR,NOT) may give spurious
results. When on each site a value of an 0 or -1 is used, it’s assumed as an condition, if
it’s not, it considered an expression. Problems could occure if you use boolean operators
with negative numbers, but that is also unrecommended because the outcome of such an
expression is highly platform depended.

3.7.2 Operators
X11-Basic provides operators for numerical expressions, character strings and arrays of either
type and any dimension.

Numerical Operators
Numerical operators are roughly categorized in following categories:

• arithmetical operators: ^ * / + -

• comparison operators: = <> < > <= >=

• logical operators: NOT AND OR XOR ...

16
 3.7 Arithmetics and Calculations

X11-Basic recognizes the following operators, in order of falling precedence (the prece-
dence of BASIC operators affects the order of expression evaluation):

Order Operator Description

1 ( ) Parenthetical expression
2 ^ Exponent
3 − Sign (negation)
3 + Sign
4 NOT Bitwise not
5 / Divide
5 * Multiply
5 \ Integer division
5 MOD Modulus (rest of division)
6 + Add
6 - Subtract
7 << Bitwise shift to the left
7 >> Bitwise shift to the right
8 = Logical "equals"
8 <> Logical "not equal"
8 < Logical "less than"
8 > Logical "Greater than"
8 <= Logical "less than or equal"
8 >= Logical "greater than or equal"
9 AND Bitwise and
9 OR Bitwise or
9 XOR Bitwise xor
9 IMP Implies
9 EQV Equivalence
10 = assignment

Operators for Character Strings

+ conjunction, links two strings together.
Example: suppose a$="X11", b$="-" and $="BASIC", so d$=a$+b$+ $ results in
"X11-BASIC".

< <= = => > comparison functions belong to numerical (boolean) functions because the result
is a number.

& the eval operator evaluates command or expression which is given by the String.

17
3 Getting Started

Rules for comparison of strings:

1. Two strings are equal if all the characters inside are identical (also spaces and punctua-
tion marks).
Example:
" 123 v fdh.-," = " 123 v fdh.-,"

2. The comparison of size operates also character by character until one of them is smaller
or a the strings ends first, this is the smaller one.
Examples:

"X11">"X11" result: 0
"X11"<"x11" result: -1
"123"<"ab " result: -1
"123">"1234" result: 0

The eval-Operator &: The &-operator followed by a string evaluates it for program code.
Example:

REM generate ten times the ommand 'print a$'

CLR i
a$="print a$"
label1:
INC i
IF i>10
b$="label2"
ELSE
b$="label1"
ENDIF
&a$
GOTO &b$
label2:
END

To program like this can produce a really unreadable code but this is BASIC.

3.7.3 String processing

X11-Basic has the usual functions to extract parts from a string: LEFT$(), MID$() and
RIGHT$().
If you want to split a string into tokens you should use the commands WORT_SEP or SPLIT.
There is quite a bunch of other string-processing functions like UPPER$() (converting to
upper case), INSTR() (finding one string within the other), CHR$() (converting an ascii-code
into a character), GLOB() (testing a string against a pattern) and more.

18
 3.8 Program structure

Array operators
+ : Addition element by element - : subtraction element by element * : Array/Matrix multi-
plication
muss noch uebersetzt werden ....

Spanning operators
Some operators operate in between of different classes of operands, like the string comparison
operators produce a number, or also the array comparison operators produce numbers. Her are
...

3.8 Program structure

An X11-Basic program consist of a main program block and subroutines. The main program
block is the shell of the program and is the section between the first line and the keyword
END (or QUIT). The code in the main block drives the logic of your program. In a simple
programs this is that is needed. In larger and more complex programs, putting all your code
in the main block makes the program hard to read and understand. Subroutines let you divide
your program in manageable sections, each performing its own specific, but limited, tasks.
In X11-Basic there are two types of subroutines: procedures and functions. The main differ-
ence between the two is that a function returns a single value and can be used in expressions,
while a procedure never returns a value. A procedure or function must appear after the main
program block. Therefore, the structure of an X11-Basic program is as follows:

Main program blo k

END
Pro edures and Fun tions

Procedures are blocks of code that can be called from elsewhere in a program. These
subroutines can take arguments but return no results. They can access all variables
available but also may have local variables (–> LOCAL).

Functions are blocks of code that can be called from elsewhere within an expression (e.g
a=3*myfun tion(b)). Variables are global unless declared local. For local variables
changes outside a function have no effect within the function except as explicitly spec-
ified within the function. Functions arguments can be variables and arrays of any data
types. Functions can return variables of any data type. By default, arguments are passed
by value.

19
3 Getting Started

3.8.1 Procedures
A procedure starts with the keyword PROCEDURE followed by the procedure name and the
parameters being passed to the procedure. All procedures must end with the keyword RETURN.
Procedures use the following format:
PROCEDURE Pro Name(parameters)
LOCAL vars
pro edure logi
RETURN
The parameters of the subroutine are placed between parenthesis behind the subroutine
name and must be in the same order as the procedure call from the main program. All variables
used within the subroutine should be declared local using the LOCAL statement. The rest of the
procedure determines the task the subroutine must perform.
A procedure can be called in two ways: by using the keyword GOSUB or . For instance, the
procedure progress(), which showsa progress bar on the text console given the total amount
a and the fraction b, can be called the following ways:
GOSUB progress(100,i)
progress(100,i)

PROCEDURE progress(a,b)
LOCAL t$
IF verbose
PRINT hr$(13);"[";string$(b/a*32,"-");">";
PRINT string$((1.03-b/a)*32,"-");"| ";str$(int(b/a*100),3,3);"% ℄";
FLUSH
ENDIF
RETURN

3.8.2 Functions
A function starts with a FUNCTION header followed by a function name, and ends with the
keyword ENDFUNCTION. The function is either a numeric or a string function. A numeric
function defaults to the floating point data type and needs no postfix. A string function returns
a string and the function name ends with a $ postfix. A function must contain at least one
RETURN statement to return the function value. Functions use this format:
FUNCTION Fun Name[$℄(parameters)
LOCAL vars
fun tion logi
RETURN value[$℄
ENDFUNCTION

20
 3.8 Program structure

The type of the return value must match the function type. A string function must return
a string and a numeric function a numeric value. The numeric value is always converted to
a floating point variable. The function returns to the caller when the RETURN statement is
executed. The ENDFUNCTION statement only indicates the end of the function declaration and
will cause an error if the program tries to execute this statement.
A function is called by preceding the function name with . As an example, the string
function Copy$() is called as follows:

Right$=Copy$("X11-Basi ",4)

where the function Copy$() might be defined as:

FUNCTION Copy$(a$,p)
LOCAL b$
b$=MID$(a$,p)
RETURN b$
ENDFUNC

Of course you are as well free do define

FUNCTION Copy$(a$,p)
RETURN MID$(a$,p)
ENDFUNC
instead.
An alternative for FUNCTION is the DEFFN statement1, which defines a one line function. The
function Copy$() used in the example above, might be used in a DEFFN statement as well:

DEFFN Copy$(a$,p)=MID$(a$,p)

In contrast with procedures and functions, DEFFN functions may be placed within a proce-
dure or function body, although it doesn’t use the local variables of the subroutine.

3.8.3 Parameters and local variables

Any X11-Basic variable type can be passed to a procedure or function.
By default all parameters are passed "’by value"’. Though parameters can also be passed
"’by reference"’ by using the VAR statement2.
The keyword VAR precedes the list of variables that are being passed as call by reference
parameters. These variables should always be listed at the end of the parameter list in the pro-
cedure or function heading. The difference between the two is that a call by value parameter
1
This is currently not implemented to X11-Basic.
2
This is currently not implemented in X11-Basic

21
3 Getting Started

gets a copy of the passed value and a call by reference does not. A VAR variable references
the same variable that is passed to the subroutine. The original variable will change when a
subroutine modifies the corresponding VAR variable. In fact, both variable names reference the
same piece of memory that contains the variable value.
Internally, X11-Basic maintains a list of all variables. Each entry in the list points to a
memory location that contains the variable value. A call by reference variable points to the
same location as the passed variable. Therefore, constants or expressions can not be passed to
a VAR variable.
A copy of an array cannot be passed directly to a subroutine1; arrays should always be
passed as a VAR. X11-Basic swaps the pointers to the array descriptors, when an array is
passed to a parameter array. The following example shows a simple function, which searches
a name in a given string array:

Idx=Sear hName("Ja k",Name$())

FUNCTION Sear hName(n$,VAR N$())

LOCAL Idx
WHILE NOT N$(Idx)=n$
INC Idx
WEND
RETURN Idx
ENDFUNC

The locally used array N$() references the global array Name$(). The array N$() is only
valid within the procedure, where it points to the descriptor of the Name$() array. Trying to
access N$() outside the procedure and Name$ within the procedure will cause an error.
The LOCAL statement lists the variables only known to a procedure or function. Subroutine
parameters are local variables as well. When a subroutine calls another subroutine the local
variables of the calling routine are known in the called routine as if they where global variables.
Several local variables separated by commas may be listed after the LOCAL statement. Mul-
tiple LOCAL lines are allowed.

3.8.4 The address of a procedure

Some external linked shared libraries require an address of a function that can be called from
within the shared library (or other objects of code, which can be linked to the X11-Basic
interpreter or compiled excecutable, if it is compiled (callback functions). X11-Basic provides
the _CB()= command to generate a pointer to the entry point of a procedure2 .
1
This may be possible in future versions of X11-Basic
2
Not yet implemented to X11-Basic

22
 3.9 Simple Input/Output

3.9 Simple Input/Output

3.9.1 Printing data to the console
You actually already know a X11-Basic command to write data on screen. This command is
PRINT. It is very versatile and you can extend it in various ways.
Syntax is simple, PRINT <data> where <data> is whatever sort of data you want to print
on screen. That can be variables, numbers, the result of a calculation, a string or a mix of them
all. You can even special user defined commands (using functions) to your PRINT statement
for screen control such as cursor positioning. A few examples for the PRINT command can be
found here:

PRINT 10+5
PRINT x%
PRINT 10;20;30
PRINT 10,20,30
PRINT "Hello!"
PRINT "y= ";y
PRINT "x=";x;" y=";y;" z=";z
PRINT "Your name is ";nam$
PRINT AT(5,5);"AT() is one of my favorites"
PRINT CHR$(27);"[2J This is a leared onsole..."

These are the most simple variations of the PRINT command. Try them out on your own to
see their effects. Try with defining a few sample variables.
Now why do you write PRINT "y =";y instead of PRINT "y =",y? Using ; will add the
following data directly behind your text without altering the cursor position while the , will
advance the cursor to the next vertical tabular position. You can use that to align your data in
tables on screen. In short, if you want to write data directly to some sort of prompt or behind
some text, use the ; notation. Put a ; as the last data on your PRINT statement to let the cursor
stay on the current line. You can use this to prevent a scrolling on the last line of the screen
or if you simply want to split writing of prompt and data into two lines of code. Technically
speaking giving the ; last will suppress a carriage return.
If you want to write direct text onto screen which is not contained in a string variable, just
enclose it in double quotes " like PRINT "Hello!" which will write Hello! on screen.

3.9.2 Screen control

Now that you know how to write your data on screen, you will also want to know how to handle
screen output in detail. How do I leave a line of text blank might you ask? Write simply PRINT
without any data behind to output a blank line on screen. Try this 3 lines program:

23
3 Getting Started

PRINT "Hello!"
PRINT
PRINT "This is the first example for s reen ontrol!"

As you see it prints the greeting and the other line with an empty line between.
A very important thing is how to clear the screen. For obvious reasons, you’ll sometimes
prepare a screen layout that requires you not to have other text or old data on screen. You’ll
simply clear the screen with the following command.

CLS

A neat thing is to write on screen exactly on a position where you want and not following
the listed flow of ordinary PRINT statements. If you did try the first example in this chapter,
you have noticed the AT() command. This special addition for PRINT allows you to position
the cursor freely on screen so you can write your data where you want. Let’s try the following
example program:

CLS
PRINT AT(1,1);"Top left"
PRINT AT(5,13);"Middle line, text indented 5 hars"
PRINT AT(20,25);"bottom line";
INPUT "",dummy$

Press the RETURN key to terminate the program. You’ll learn soon about the INPUT state-
ment.
Syntax for PRINT AT(); is PRINT AT( olumn, row);, where row 1 is on top of the screen
and column 1 on the left end. Column and row can be variables, expressions or simply a plain
number. Valid PRINT AT() commands are:

PRINT AT(1,5);"Hello"
PRINT AT(5+x%,10);"x"
PRINT AT(4+8,y%);"y = "

How many character positions do I have at my hand you may ask. This depends on the
current console screen size. You have almost always at least 24 lines of text. 80 columns are
standard. If you want to exactly know the number of rows and collums of the text screen, you
can use the (system) variables ROWS and COLS.

> PRINT ROWS,COLS

24 80

There are more commands you can use with PRINT like SPC() and TAB(). Refer to the
command reference on them.

24
 3.9 Simple Input/Output

3.9.3 Formatting output with PRINT USING

There are built in commands for formatting data on output. I will only explain how to use that
for numeric data. Refer to your command reference to learn how to apply it for strings.
Generic syntax is PRINT USING "<format string>",expression. The format string
defines how you want your data to be formatted on screen while expression is what you want
to write with this format. Expression can be a number, a variable or a full expression.

3.9.4 Gathering user input

Finally you can make your program interactive and allow the user to enter data into the com-
puter. To understand this sub chapter, you have to fully understand variables as explained in
chapter 2 because all user input is stored in variables.
To enter numbers into the computer, use the INPUT statement in one of the following ways.
Your entered data is stored in the named variable. If you give a string variable, you can enter
text while you can only enter numeric data if you use a numeric variable. A minus sign and
optional decimal point are allowed for numeric input.

INPUT "x= ",x

INPUT "What is your name? ",your_name$

This will prompt the user to enter a value for x which will be stored into a float variable.
You can then use this variable in your program as normal, doing calculations with it. Your
program will stop until the RETURN key or the ENTER key has been pressed to terminate the
input.
You can read more than one variable with one INPUT statement, just list your variables
where you want your input to go to with separating commata.

PRINT "enter 3 values, separated with ommata (eq 3,4,5):"

INPUT x%,y%,z%

The user has then to enter commata at the appropriate places to tell which input goes to
which variable. To the example above the user would respond with 5,6,7. As always you can
then reuse the entered values in expressions and calculations.

CLS
INPUT "Enter a value for x:",x
PRINT "x = ";x
INPUT "What is your name?",your_name$
PRINT "Your name is ";your_name$;"."
PRINT "Bye, ";your_name$;"!"

25
3 Getting Started

While entering strings you may have already noticed that X11-Basic will treat entering a
comma again as a delimiter, effectively cutting your string at that comma. Use the command
LINEINPUT instead of INPUT to read strings.

LINEINPUT txt$

You can now enter strings with a comma in and it will be saved to the string variable as well.
You can read multiple strings with LINEINPUT as well but the user has to press the RETURN
key terminating each string to be entered.
An INPUT statement will erase the former contents of a variable in any case and will place
the entered values in them.

3.10 Flow Control

This time you’ll finally make your programs do things more then once without having to retype
your code. The creation of so called loops is essential for making complex programs work.
The concept of looping and simple counting loops
Before going further let me explain you the fundamental idea of looping. The idea is to
make your program repeat a section of code for a defined amount of time. You may let X11-
Basic count a variable for you and you can then use the value of that variable in an ongoing
calculation. Or you can let X11-Basic loop a certain part of code until a special condition has
been met. Take a look at the following sample program:

FOR i%=1 TO 5
PRINT i%
NEXT i%

This little example program loops 5 times and counts the variable i% from 1 to 5 and prints
the current value to the screen. This sort of loop is called a FOR-NEXT-loop. You can use
any numerical variable to count. Most often this sort of loop is used to do things a certain
amount of time or to iterate over a list. The loop will repeat the code between the FOR and
its corresponding NEXT. Each time X11-Basic reaches the NEXT, it will increment the count
variable and will stop the loop if the maximum count has been reached.
You can of course have another loop inside the current one. Just make sure not to use the
same variable for counting or X11-Basic will do unpredictable things:

FOR i%=1 TO 5
FOR j%=1 TO 10
PRINT i%;" * ";j%;" = ";i%*j%
NEXT j%
NEXT i%

26
 3.10 Flow Control

That sample program has one FOR-NEXT-loop in another and it calculates the product of
the both counter variables creating some sort of multiplication table. Some rules and advice
to keep in mind with FOR-NEXT-loops:

1. Always terminate an opened FOR with a corresponding NEXT.

2. Always terminate FOR-loops in the correct order. If you write FOR i%=. . . first and
FOR j%=. . . next, make sure to terminate the inner loop first.

3. You can count downwards with the word DOWNTO instead of TO. Try FOR i%=5 DOWNTO 1.

4. You can count in steps not equal 1 with the keyword STEP: FOR i%=1 TO 10 STEP 2
That will increment i% in steps of 2 until it reaches 10.

5. X11-Basic will check for correct loop termination while entering the code into the editor.

6. You can terminate the FOR-NEXT-loop with the EXIT IF statement.

Conditions

A very fundamental idea in programming is to create and use conditionals. These will allow
you to make decisions when certain conditions are met and let your program take an alternative
code segment.
Try to imagine that you count a special variable and want to do something else when the
value of your counter is 5:

FOR i%=1 to 10
IF i%=5
PRINT "i% is now 5"
ELSE
PRINT "i% is not 5"
ENDIF
NEXT i%

This program loops 10 times and counts in the variable i%. For each iteration of the loop it
checks if i% is 5 in the IF line. If that condition is true, i% is 5, then it executes the program
branch until the ELSE and omits the following part. If the condition is not true, X11-Basic
will only execute the part behind the ELSE. Make sure to terminate each IF conditional with
an ENDIF or X11-Basic will get lost and produce an error message.
You may leave out the ELSE fork. X11-Basic will then do nothing if the condition is not
true.

27
3 Getting Started

3.10.1 Conditional and endless loops

Sometimes you don’t know how far you need to count for a special operation. Or imagine a
game. You don’t want to let it run just for 10 frames but until the player sprite did collide or
something like that. The first new loop will loop until a condition is fulfilled:

REPEAT
...
UNTIL < ondition>

This is a so called REPEAT-UNTIL-loop. It loops at least once and checks for the condition
after the loop contents have been executed by X11-Basic. Use it for things that need to be
done at least once. You can emulate FOR-NEXT-loops with it if you want trickier counting:

i%=1
REPEAT
PRINT "i%=";i%
i%=i%+1
UNTIL i%>5

Surely you can test the condition before entering a loop. This is useful if you want to loop
only when a certain condition is already true:

WHILE < ondition>

...
WEND

This is the so called WHILE-WEND loop. It checks the condition first and it will not
execute the loop body if the condition is not fulfilled. Sometimes you want to loop endless.
X11-Basic has a special loop construct for this purpose although you can create never ending
loops easily with the types above if you use a condition that will never get true. The never
ending loop is called DO-loop. The 3 loops in the example are all equal in functionality and
will loop endless.

DO
PRINT "endless"
LOOP

i%=0
REPEAT
PRINT "endless"
UNTIL i%=1

28
 3.10 Flow Control

i%=0
WHILE i%=0
PRINT "endless"
WEND

At this point it is important that you know you can terminate at your X11-Basic program at
any point. This is useful if your program gets stuck in an endless loop which was not intended.
Press CONTROL-c together and X11-Basic will stop the program. Another CONTROL-c will
quit the interpreter.
Sometimes you will want to terminate a running loop at another point than the official loop
beginning or loop end. Use the EXIT IF statement in your loop for extra conditions. This
will also terminate FOR-NEXT-loops if you wish to and it is the only way to terminate a
DO-LOOP.

i%=1
DO
PRINT "i%=";i%
EXIT IF i%=5
i%=i%+1
LOOP

Please note that the EXIT IF statement has no ENDIF or the like. It just terminates the loop
and continues your program behind the loop end.

29
3 Getting Started

3.11 Adress spaces

The full accessible Program memory can be accessed by PEEK/POKE, LPEEK/LPOKE, DPEEK/DPOKE.
Be careful. You can manipulate all symbols of the interpreter and or dynamically linked li-
braries and your program. Adressspaces belonging to other programs which are not shared
memory blocks can not be accessed. You will get a segmentation fault on trying this.

3.12 Graphics: Drawing and painting

A graphics window will be automatically opened when the first graphic command appears in
your program. Without using any graphic commands no X11-Server is needed at all and your
programs also runs under a text console or as a daemon or as CGI scripts. But if you want
to draw anything with e.g. LINE, CIRCLE or BOX, control the MOUSE pointer, the keyboard
or use the graphical user interface with e.g. ALERT or MENU, a graphic window will open with
the default geometry 640x400. All graphic output can be done in full color which can be set
with the GET_COLOR() and the COLOR statements. Moreover, there can be up to 16 different
graphic windows opened at a time. Please note that all graphics is displaied after a SHOWPAGE
command only. This allows fast animations.
To allow for some animated bitmap graphics, X11-Basic offers the commands GET and PUT,
which retrieve rectangular regions from the graphics-window into a string or vice versa.

3.13 Reading from and writing to files

Before you may read from or write to a file, you need to open it; once you are done, you
should close it. Each open file is designated by a simple number, which might be stored
within a variable and must be supplied to the PRINT and INPUT commands if you want to
access the file.
If you need more control, you may consider reading and writing one byte at a time, using
the multi-purpose commands INP() and OUT, or reading the whole file as a binary block with
BLOAD.

3.14 Internet connections, special files and sockets

X11-Basic allows to connect a program to another Program on a different (or the same) host
computer via standart internet protocols or pipes.
Basically there are two methods of connections to other computers on a network: The
TCP/IP Based connections via strams and the implemention of a connectionless, unreliable
datagram packet service (UDP).
A method of passing data between two applications on the same computer is using Pipes.
Pipes are special files which are created in the local filesystem.

30
 3.14 Internet connections, special files and sockets

3.14.1 Local communication: Pipes

3.14.2 World-Wide communication: Sockets
Most interprocess communication uses the client server model. These terms refer to the two
processes which will be communicating with each other. One of the two processes, the client,
connects to the other process, the server, typically to make a request for information. A good
analogy is a person who makes a phone call to another person.
Notice that the client needs to know of the existence of and the address of the server, but
the server does not need to know the address of (or even the existence of) the client prior to
the connection being established. Notice also that once a connection is established, both sides
can send and receive information.
When a socket is created, the program has to specify the address domain and the socket
type. Two processes can communicate with each other only if their sockets are of the same
type and in the same domain. There are two widely used address domains, the unix domain,
in which two processes which share a common file system communicate, and the Internet
domain, in which two processes running on any two hosts on the Internet communicate. Each
of these has its own address format.
The address of a socket in the Unix domain is a character string which is basically an entry
in the file system.
The address of a socket in the Internet domain consists of the Internet address of the host
machine (every computer on the Internet has a unique 32 bit address, often referred to as its
IP address). In addition, each socket needs a port number on that host. Port numbers are
16 bit unsigned integers. The lower numbers are reserved in Unix for standard services. For
example, the port number for the FTP server is 21. It is important that standard services be
at the same port on all computers so that clients will know their addresses. However, port
numbers above 2000 are generally available.

Socket Types There are two widely used socket types, stream sockets, and datagram sock-
ets. Stream sockets treat communications as a continuous stream of characters, while datagram
sockets have to read entire messages at once. Each uses its own communciations protocol.
Stream sockets use TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which is a reliable, stream oriented
protocol, and datagram sockets use UDP (Unix Datagram Protocol), which is unreliable and
message oriented.

TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) provides a reliable byte-stream transfer ser-
vice between two endpoints on an internet. TCP depends on IP to move packets around the
network on its behalf. IP is inherently unreliable, so TCP protects against data loss, data cor-
ruption, packet reordering and data duplication by adding checksums and sequence numbers
to transmitted data and, on the receiving side, sending back packets that acknowledge the
receipt of data.

31
3 Getting Started

Before sending data across the network, TCP establishes a connection with the destination
via an exchange of management packets. The connection is destroyed, again via an exchange
of management packets, when the application that was using TCP indicates that no more data
will be transferred. In OSI terms, TCP is a Connection-Oriented Acknowledged Transport
protocol.
TCP has a multi-stage flow-control mechanism which continuously adjusts the sender’s
data rate in an attempt to achieve maximum data throughput while avoiding congestion and
subsequent packet losses in the network. It also attempts to make the best use of network
resources by packing as much data as possible into a single IP packet, although this behaviour
can be overridden by applications that demand immediate data transfer and don’t care about
the inefficiencies of small network packets.
The system calls for establishing a connection are somewhat different for the client and the
server, but both involve the basic construct of a socket. A socket is one end of an interprocess
communication channel. The two processes each establish their own socket.
The steps involved in establishing a socket on the client side are as follows:

1. Create a socket with the OPEN command providing a port number

open "US",#1," lient",5000

2. Connect the socket to the address of the server using the CONNECT command

onne t #1,"ptbtime1.ptb.de",13

3. Instead of using Steps 1 and 2, you can alternatively use the combined command:

open "UC",#2,"ptbtime1.ptb.de",13

4. Send and receive data. There are a number of ways to do this, but the simplest is to use
the PRINT, SEND, WRITE, READ, RECEIVE INPUT commands.

print #2,"GET /index.html"

flush #2
while inp?(#2)
lineinput #2,t$
print "got: ";t$
wend

5. close the connection with

lose #1

The steps involved in establishing a socket on the server side are as follows:

32
 3.14 Internet connections, special files and sockets

1. Create a socket with the OPEN command and bind the socket to a port number on the
host machine.

open "US",#1,"server",5000

2. Listen for connections with

3. Accept a connection with another OPEN command.

open "UA",#2,"",1

This call typically blocks until a client connects with the server.
4. Send and receive data on the accepted connection
print #2,"Wel ome to X11-Basi test-server ..."
flush #2
do
if inp?(#2)
lineinput #2,t$
print "got: ";t$
endif
exit if t$="quit"
loop
print #2,"goodbye..."
flush #2

5. close the established connection with

lose #2

and listen to the next connection or

6. close the socket if not further needed

lose #1

UDP User Datagram Protocol (UDP) provides an unreliable packetized data transfer service
between endpoints on an internet. UDP depends on IP to move packets around the network on
its behalf.
First a SOcket has to be crated with the OPEN command:

open "UU",#1,"sender",5556

When a UDP socket is created, its local and remote addresses are unspecified. Datagrams
can be sent immedi ately using SEND with a valid destination address and port as argument:
send #1,"This is my message",mkl( hr$(131)+ hr$(195)+ hr$(15)+ hr$(200)),5000

33
3 Getting Started

UDP uses the IPv4 address format, so a long integer has to be passed.
When CONNECT is called on the socket the default destination address is set and datagrams
can now be sent using SEND without specifying an destination address. It is still possible to
send to other destinations by passing an address to SEND.
onne t #1,"lo alhost",5555
send #1,"This is my message"

All receive operations return only one packet.

if inp?(#1)
re eive #1,t$,adr
print "Re eived Message: ";t$;" from ";hex$(adr)
endif

INP?(#n) Returns the size of the next pending datagram in bytes, or 0 when no datagram is
pending.
The Socket should be closed when the connection is not goint to be used any more:

lose #1
UDP does not guarantee to actually deliver the data to the destination, nor does it guarantee
that data packets will be delivered to the destination in the order in which they were sent by the
source, nor does it guarantee that only one copy of the data will be delivered to the destination.
UDP does guarantee data integrity, and it does this by adding a checksum to the data before
transmission.

3.15 Data within the program

You may store data within your program within DATA-statements; during execution you will
probably want to READ it into variables or arrays. Also the assignment of constant to arrays
may be used to store data in your program and last but not least the INLINE$() function may
be used to store huge binary data segments.
The first example shows how to store conventional data (numbers and strings) within the
sourcecode of a basic program:
' example how to use the DATA statement
RESTORE mydata
READ name$,age,address$, ode
mydata:
DATA "Bud Spen er",30,"Holywood Street",890754
DATA "Hannelore Isendahl",15,"Max-Plan k-Allee",813775

The following example shows hot to store arbitrary binary data, which can be used e.g. to
store the bitmapdata for a bitmap ( ).

34
 3.16 Dynamic-link libraries

' output of inline.bas for X11-Basi 23.04.2002

' demo 104 Bytes.
demo$=""
demo$=demo$+"5*IIV%M[4D=*9V,)5I[4D=*9V,(IR?*IR=6Y*A:℄OA*IS?F\.&IAI?J\D8ZII"
demo$=demo$+",*5M=;1IV%P=;1I?F%OaJ℄R=:\P,*5E?J\D>*)X,*9W,*AI>ZUE+%X/F\R&JAV"
demo$=demo$+"A;1W&HXR&DL$"
a$=INLINE$(demo$)
PRINT len(a$),a$
' show a bitmap
biene$="($$43$%*<(1G,=E5Z&MD%_DVW'b*%H-^,EQ6>VTL$$$$"
CLEARW
t$=INLINE$(biene$)
COLOR GET_COLOR(65535,65535,65535)
FOR i=0 TO 40
PUT_BITMAP t$,i*16,0,16,16
NEXT i

3.16 Dynamic-link libraries

A dynamic-link library (.so =shared object) is a collection of functions (subroutines) that can
be used by programs or by other .so’s. A .so function must be called, directly or indirectly,
from a running application and can not be run as a separate task.
Dynamic link libraries save memory space and reduce memory swapping. Memory is saved,
because many applications can use a single .so simultaneously, sharing a single copy of the
.so in memory. Another feature of .so’s is the ability to change the functions in a .so without
modifying the applications that use them, as long as the function’s arguments and return values
do not change. A disadvantage to using .so’s is that an application depends on the existence
of a separate .so module. If the .so is not found, the application is terminated.
All documented functions from the shared objects of other software packages can be used
and invoked from within yout X11-Basic program.
X11-Basic will perform no check on the number and type of the API function parameters.

3.16.1 Using shared libraries and C functions

Before an application can use a function from a .so (if you want to use your own functions
written in C you have to compile them to a shared object file), it must load the .so explicitly
using the LINK statement.

LINK #n,"myfile.so"

The process of loading a .so explicitly is called run-time linking.

For instance, to use the binit() function from the tra kit.so library, an application must
include following lines of code (supposing, you want to use your own shared object made out
of the c-code trackit.c):

35
3 Getting Started

IF not exist("./tra kit.so")

system "g -O3 -shared -o tra kit.so tra kit. "
ENDIF
LINK #11,"./tra kit.so"
~EXEC(SYM_ADR(#11,"binit"),L:n,L:200,L:varptr(x(0)),L:varptr(bins(0)))

The file tra kit. contains:

#in lude <stdlib.h>

#in lude <stdio.h>
#in lude <math.h>
void binit(int n,int dn,double *x,double *data) {
int i,j;
int over=0,under=0;
for(i=0;i<n;i++) {
j=(int)((x[i℄+PI)/2/PI*dn);
if(j<0) under++;
else if(j>=dn) over++;
else data[j℄++;
}
}

X11-Basic applications can load up to 99 shard object files simultaneously, al though the
channel number space is shared with the open files..
To do this parameter n must specify a value between 1 an 99. X11-Basic maintains an
internal table with 99 entries to store the handle of the loaded shared object modules. These
handles are necessary to unload the .so when the application is finished using them.
The .so’s are unloaded by invoking the UNLINK command:

UNLINK #11

X11-Basic currently allows only a float (double) type for the return value. This is currently a
limitation for the use of the standard libraries. If you have written the library function yourself,
you could bypass this limitation by passing pointers to variables.
The following parameter types are possible:

L: 32-bits integers and pointers (long) (%)

W: 16-bits signed (short)
B: 8-bits signed (char)
F: 8 byte float (double)
S: 4 byte float (float)

The SYM_ADR function determines the address of the function from its name. The spelling
of the function name must therefore be identical to the spelling of the function in the .so.
When passing the address of the string, a null byte must be added to the end of the string.

36
 3.17 Memory management

3.17 Memory management

Normally, X11-Basic takes care of most of the memory management for the programmer.
When a variable, string or array is declared, X11-Basic allocates the required memory and
releases it when the application is terminated. However, there may be situations when a pro-
grammer wants to allocate additional memory.

3.17.1 Allocating memory

If an application needs to store small amounts of memory, it should use strings. Strings are
often used as a buffer for functions. The Adress of the memory occupied by a string can be
obtained by the VARPTR() function. Its length by the LEN() funciton.
To allocate memory from the global and systemwide proram user space memory pool you
might use the function MALLOC(). For instance, to allocate 2000 bytes, you might use:

Ptr%=MALLOC(2000)

A global memory block allocated with MALLOC must be freed using the FREE() function.
An application should always free all memory blocks before exiting. For instance:

FREE Ptr%

3.18 Other features

• X11-Basic programs may start other programs with the commands SYSTEM and SYSTEM$().

• The ENV$() function allows access to environment variables.

• The current time or date can be retrieved with TIME$ and DATE$.

• The interpreter allows self modifying code.

• It is possible to link shared library objects and use the fuctions provided from within the
X11-basic Program

37
3 Getting Started

Figure 3.1: A message box.

Figure 3.2: A simple input box.

3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)

3.19.1 ALERT and FILESELECT
Two most often used Graphic functions are implementet as a full functional graphical user
interface dialog: Message boxes and a Fileselector. Arbitrary dialogs can be createt with the
object and recource functions. Also a pull down menu function is implemented.
Fig. 3.1 shows a typical messagebox. The command which produces it is:
ALERT 3,"This file is write prote ted.|You an only read or
delete it.",1,"OK|DELETE|CANCEL",sel

ALERT boxes can also be used to manage simple input forms like the one you can see in
fig. 3.2. Here is a little exapmle program:
CLEARW
i=1
name$="TEST01"
posx$="N54◦50'32.3"
posy$="E007◦50'32.3"
t$="Edit waypoint:||Name: "+CHR$(27)+name$+"|"
t$=t$+"Breite: "+ hr$(27)+posx$+"|"
t$=t$+"Länge: "+ hr$(27)+posy$+"|"
t$=t$+"Höhe: "+ hr$(27)+str$(alt,5,5)+"|"
t$=t$+"Typ: "+ hr$(27)+hex$(styp,4,4)+"|"
ALERT 0,t$,1,"OK|UPDATE|LÖSCHEN|CANCEL",a,f$
WHILE LEN(f$)
WORT_SEP f$,CHR$(13),0,a$,f$
PRINT "Feld";i;": ",a$
INC i
WEND
QUIT

Fig. 3.4 shows the fileselector box. The command which produces it is:

38
 3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Figure 3.3: The fileselcetor

Figure 3.4: A pull down menu

FILESELECT "load program:","./*.bas","in.bas",f$

The complete path and filname of the selected file will be returned in f$.

3.19.2 Recources
X11-Basic resources consist of object trees, strings, and bitmaps used by a basic program.
They encapsulate the user interface and make internationalization easier by placing all pro-
gram strings in a single file. The dataformat of X11Basic recources is downwards compatible
with the Atari-ST GEM implementation.
Resources are generally created using a Resource Construction Set (RCS) and saved to a
.RSC file which is loaded by RSRC_LOAD() at program initialization time.
Resources may also be embedded as data structures in source code (the utility programs
rs 2gui.bas and gui2bas.bas convert .RSC files to source code). Resources contain point-

39
3 Getting Started

Figure 3.5: Examples of forms in X11-Basic

ers and coordinates which must be fixed up before being used. RSRC_LOAD() does this auto-
matically, however if you use an embedded resource you must take care of this by yourself
on each object in each object tree to convert the initial character coordinates of to screen co-
ordinates. This allows resources designed on screens with different aspect ratios and system
fonts to appear the same. Once a resource is loaded use rsr _gaddr() to obtain pointers to
individual object trees which can then be manipulated directly or with the X11-Basic built-in
functions.

3.19.3 Objects
Objects can be boxes, buttons, text, images, and more. An object tree is an array of OBJECT
structures linked to form a structured relationship to each other. The object itself is a section
of data which can be held by a string in X11-Basic.
The OBJECT structure is format is as follows:

obje t$=MKI$(ob_next)+MKI$(ob_head)+MKI$(ob_tail)+
MKI$(ob_type)+MKI$(ob_flags)+MKI$(ob_state)+
MKL$(ob_spe )+MKI$(ob_x)+MKI$(ob_y)+MKI$(ob_width)+
MKI$(ob_height)

An Object tree is a collection of objects:

tree$=obje t0$+obje t1$+ ... +obje tn$

40
 3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The first object in an OBJECT tree is called the ROOT object (OBJECT 0). It’s coordinates
are relative to the upper-left hand corner of the graphics window. The ROOT object can
have any number of children and each child can have children of their own. In each case,
the OBJECT’s coordinates, ob_x, ob_y, ob_width, and ob_height are relative to that of its
parent. The X11-Basic function obj _offset() can, however, be used to determine the exact
screen coordinates of a child object. obj _find() is used to determine the object at a given
screen coordinate.
The ob_next, ob_head, and ob_tail fields determine this relationship between parent
OBJECTs and child OBJECTs.

ob_next the index (counting objects from the first object in the object tree) of the object’s
next sibling at the same level in the object tree array. The ROOT object should set this
value to -1. The last child at any given nesting level should set this to the index of its
parent.

ob_head the index of the first child of the current object. If the object has no children then
this value should be -1.

ob_tail the index of the last child: the tail of the list of the object’s children in the object tree
array If the object has no children then this value should be -1.

ob_type the object type. The low byte of the ob_type field specifies the object type as
follows:

ob_type Name Description

20 G_BOX Box
21 G_TEXT Formatted Text
22 G_BOXTEXT Formatted Text in a Box
23 G_IMAGE Monochrome Image
24 G_PROGDEF Programmer-Defined Object
25 G_IBOX Invisible Box
26 G_BUTTON Push Button w/String
27 G_BOXCHAR Character in a Box
28 G_STRING Unformatted Text
29 G_FTEXT Editable Formatted Text
30 G_FBOXTEXT Editable Formatted Text in a Box
31 G_ICON Monochrome Icon
32 G_TITLE Menu Title
33 G_CICON Color Icon

ob_flags The ob_flags field of the object structure is a bitmask of different flags that can be
applied to any object. You may want to apply one ore more flags at once. Just add the
values ob_flags.

41
3 Getting Started

ob_flags Name Description

0 NONE No flag
object is selected. state may be toggled by clicking on it
1 SELECTABLE
with the mouse.
An EXIT object with this bit set will have a thicker outline
2 DEFAULT
and be triggered when the user presses return.
Clicking on this OBJECT and releasing the mouse button
4 EXIT
while still over it will cause the dialog to exit.
Set for FTEXT and FBOXTEXT objects to indicate that
8 EDITABLE
they may receive edit focus.
This object is one of a group of radio buttons. Clicking on
it will deselect any selected objects at the same tree level
16 RBUTTON
that also have the RBUTTON fllag set. Likewise, it will be
deselected automatically when any other object is selected.
This flag signals that the current OBJECT is the last in the
32 LASTOB
object tree. (Required!)
Setting this flag causes the OBJECT to return an exit state
64 TOUCHEXIT
immediately after being clicked on with the mouse.
256 HIDETREE This OBJECT and all of its children will not be drawn.
This flag cause the ob_spec field to be interpreted as a
512 INDIRECT
pointer to the ob_spec value rather than the value itself.
Setting this flag causes the OBJECT to be drawn as a 3D
1024 FL3DIND
indicator. This is appropriate for radio and toggle buttons.
Setting this flag causes the OBJECT to be drawn as a 3D
2048 FL3DACT
activator. This is appropriate for EXIT buttons.
If these bits are set, the object is treated as an AES back-
ground object. If it is OUTLINED, the outlined is drawn in
3072 FL3DBAK a 3D manner. If its color is set to WHITE and its fill pat-
tern is set to 0 then the OBJECT will inherit the default 3D
background color.
This bit is set on menu items which have a sub-menu at-
4096 SUBMENU tachment. This bit also indicates that the high byte of the
ob_type field is being used by the menu system.

ob_state The ob_state field determines the display state of the object as follows:

42
 3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)

ob_state Name Description

0 NORMAL Normal state
The object is selected. An object with this bit set will be
1 SELECTED drawn in inverse video except for G_CICON which will use
its ’selected’ image.
An OBJECT with this bit set will be drawn over with a
2 CROSSED white cross (this state can only usually be seen over a col-
ored or SELECTED object).
An OBJECT with this bit set will be displayed with a check-
4 CHECKED
mark in its upper-left corner.
An OBJECT with this bit set will ignore user input. Text
8 DISABLED objects with this bit set will draw in grey or a dithered pat-
tern.
G_BOX, G_IBOX, G_BOXTEXT, G_FBOXTEXT, and
16 OUTLINED G_BOXCHAR OBJECTs with this bit set will be drawn
with a double border.
G_BOX, G_IBOX, G_BOXTEXT, G_FBOXTEXT, and
32 SHADOWED
G_BOXCHAR OBJECTs will be drawn with a shadow.

ob_spec The Object-Specific Field

The ob_spec field contains different data depending on the object type as indicated in
the table below:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |The low 16 bits ontain a WORD ontaining olor |
|G_BOX |information for the OBJECT. Bits 23-16 ontain a signed|
| |BYTE representing the border thi kness of the box. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_TEXT |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to a TEDINFO |
| |stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_BOXTEXT |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to a TEDINFO |
| |stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_IMAGE |The ob_spe field points to a BITBLK stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_PROGDEF |The ob_spe field points to a APPLBLK stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |The low 16 bits ontain a WORD ontaining olor |
|G_IBOX |information for the OBJECT. Bits 23-16 ontain a signed|
| |BYTE representing the border thi kness of the box. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_BUTTON |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to the text to be |
| | ontained in the button. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |The low 16 bits ontain a WORD ontaining olor |
| |information for the OBJECT. Bits 23-16 ontain a signed|

43
3 Getting Started

|G_BOXCHAR |BYTE representing the border thi kness of the box. Bits|
| |31-24 ontain the ASCII value of the hara ter to |
| |display. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_STRING |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to the text to be |
| |displayed. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_FTEXT |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to a TEDINFO |
| |stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_FBOXTEXT|The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to a TEDINFO |
| |stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_ICON |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to an ICONBLK |
| |stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_TITLE |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to the text to be |
| |used for the title. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
|G_CICON |The ob_spe field ontains a pointer to a CICONBLK |
| |stru ture. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+

objc_colorword Almost all objects reference a WORD containing the object color as
defined below.

obj _ olorword=bbbb tppp

Bits 15-12 ontain the border olor

Bits 11-8 ontain the text olor
Bit 7 is 1 if opaque or 0 if transparent
Bits 6-4 ontain the fill pattern index
Bits 3-0 ontain the fill olor

Available colors for fill patterns, text, and borders are listed below:

44
 3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Value Name Color

0 WHITE White
1 BLACK Black
2 RED Red
3 GREEN Green
4 BLUE Blue
5 CYAN Cyan
6 YELLOW Yellow
7 MAGENTA Magenta
8 LWHITE Light Gray
9 LBLACK Dark Gray
10 LRED Light Red
11 LGREEN Light Green
12 LBLUE Light Blue
13 LCYAN Light Cyan
14 LYELLOW Light Yellow
15 LMAGENTA Light Magenta

TEDINFO G_TEXT, G_BOXTEXT, G_FTEXT, and G_FBOXTEXT objects all ref-

erence a TEDINFO structure in their ob_spec field. The TEDINFO structure is
defined below:

tedinfo$=MKL$(VARPTR(te_ptext$))+MKL$(VARPTR(te_ptmplt$))+
MKL$(VARPTR(te_pvalid$))+MKI$(te_font)+MKI$(te_fontid)+
MKI$(te_just)+MKI$(te_ olor)+MKI$(te_fontsize)+
MKI$(te_thi kness)+MKI$(te_txtlen)+MKI$(te_tmplen)

The three character pointer point to text strings required for G_FTEXT and G_FBOXTEXT
objects. te_ptext points to the actual text to be displayed and is the only field used
by all text objects. te_ptmplt points to the text template for editable fields. For
each character that the user can enter, the text string should contain a tilde charac-
ter (ASCII 126). Other characters are displayed but cannot be overwritten by the
user. te_pvalid contains validation characters for each character the user may
enter. The current acceptable validation characters are:

45
3 Getting Started

Caracter Allows
9 Digits 0-9
A Uppercase letters A-Z plus space
a Upper and lowercase letters plus space
N Digits 0-9, uppercase letters A-Z and space
n Digits 0-9, upper and lowercase letters A-Z and space
F Valid DOS filename characters plus question mark and asterisk
P Valid DOS pathname characters, backslash, colon, question mark, asterisk
p Valid DOS pathname characters, backslash and colon
X All characters

te_font may be set to any of the following values:

te_font Name Description

3 IBM Use the standard monospaced font.
5 SMALL Use the small monospaced font.

te_just sets the justification of the text output as follows:

te_just Name Description

0 TE_LEFT Left Justify
1 TE_RIGHT Right Justify
2 TE_CNTR Center

te_thickness sets the border thickness (positive and negative values are acceptable)
of the G_BOXTEXT or G_FBOXTEXT object.
te_txtlen and te_tmplen should be set to the length of the starting text and template
length respectively.
BITBLK G_IMAGE objects contain a pointer to a BITBLK structure in their ob_spec
field. The BITBLK structure is defined as follows:

bitblk$=MKL$(VARPTR(bi_pdata$))+MKI$(bi_wb)+MKI$(bi_hl)+
MKI$(bi_x)+MKI$(bi_y)+MKI$(bi_ olor)

bi_pdata should contain a monochrome bit image. bi_wb specifies the width (in
bytes) of the image. All BITBLK images must be a multiple of 16 pixels wide
therefore this value must be even. bi_hl specifies the height of the image in
scan lines (rows). bi_x and bi_y are used as offsets into bi_pdata. Any data
occurring before these coordinates will be ignored. bi_ olor is a standard color
WORD where the fill color specifies the color in which the image will be rendered.
ICONBLK The ob_spe field of G_ICON objects point to an ICONBLK structure as
defined below:

46
 3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)

i onblk$=MKL$(VARPTR(ib_pmask$))+MKL$(VARPTR(ib_pdata$))+MKL$(VARPTR(ib_ptext$))+
MKI$(ib_ har)+MKI$(ib_x har)+MKI$(ib_y har)+
MKI$(ib_xi on)+MKI$(ib_yi on)+MKI$(ib_wi on)+MKI$(ib_hi on)+
MKI$(ib_xtext)+MKI$(ib_ytext)+MKI$(ib_wtext)+MKI$(ib_htext)

ib_pmask and ib_pdata contain the monochrome mask and image data respec-
tively. ib_ptext is a string pointer to the icon text. ib_ har defines the icon
character (used for drive icons) and the icon foreground and background color as
follows:
| ib_ har |
| Bits 15-12 | Bits 11-8 | Bits 7-0 |
|I on Foreground Color |I on Ba kground Color |ASCII Chara ter (or 0 |
| | | for no hara ter). |

ib_x har and ib_y har specify the location of the icon character relative to
ib_xi on and ib_yi on. ib_xi on and ib_yi on specify the location of the
icon relative to the ob_x and ob_y of the object. ib_wi on and ib_hi on specify
the width and height of the icon in pixels. As with images, icons must be a mul-
tiple of 16 pixels in width. ib_xtext and ib_ytext specify the location of the
text string relative to the ob_x and ob_y of the object. ib_wtext and ib_htext
specify the width and height of the icon text area.
CICONBLK The G_CICON object defines its ob_spe field to be a pointer to a CICON-
BLK structure as defined below:
i onblk$=monoblk$+MKL$(VARPTR(mainlist$))

monoblk contains a monochrome icon which is rendered if a color icon matching

the display parameters cannot be found. In addition, the icon text, character, size,
and positioning data from the monochrome icon are always used for the color one.
mainlist contains the first CICON structure in a linked list of color icons for
different resolutions. CICON is defined as follows:
i on$=MKI$(num_planes)+MKL$(VARPTR( ol_data$))+MKL$(VARPTR( ol_mask$))+
MKL$(VARPTR(sel_data$))+MKL$(VARPTR(sel_mask$))+
MKL$(VARPTR( i on2$))

num_planes indicates the number of bit planes this color icon contains. ol_data
and ol_mask contain the icon data and mask for the unselected icon respectively.
Likewise, sel_data and sel_mask contain the icon data and mask for the selected
icon. i on2$ contains the next color icon definition. Use MKL$(0) if no more
are available.
The GUI library searches the CICONBLK object for a color icon that has the same
number of planes in the display. If none is found, the GUI library simply uses the
monochrome icon.

47
3 Getting Started

APPLBLK G_PROGDEF objects allow programmers to define custom objects and link
them transparently in the resource. The ob_spe field of G_PROGDEF objects con-
tains a pointer to an APPLBLK as defined below:
applblk$=MKL$(SYM_ADR(#1,"fun tion"))+MKL$(ap_parm)

The first is a pointer to a user-defined routine which will draw the object. This
routine must be a c-Function, which has to be linked to X11-basic with the LINK
command. The routine will be passed a pointer to a PARMBLK structure contain-
ing the information it needs to render the object. The routine must be defined with
stack checking off and expect to be passed its parameter on the stack. ap_parm is a
user-defined value which is copied into the PARMBLK structure as defined below:
typedef stru t parm_blk {
OBJECT *tree;
short pb_obj;
short pb_prevstate;
short pb_ urrstate;
short pb_x;
short pb_y;
short pb_w;
short pb_h;
short pb_x ;
short pb_y ;
short pb_w ;
short pb_h ;
long pb_parm;
} PARMBLK;

tree points to the OBJECT tree of the object being drawn. The object is located
at index pb_obj.
The routine is passed the old ob_state of the object in pb_prevstate and the
new ob_state of the object in pb_ urrstate. If pb_prevstate and pb_ urrstate
is equal then the object should be drawn completely, otherwise only the drawing
necessary to redraw the object from pb_prevstate to pb_ urrstate are neces-
sary.
pb_x, pb_y, pb_w, and pb_h give the screen coordinates of the object. pb_x ,
pb_y , pb_w , and pb_h give the rectangle to clip to. pb_parm contains a copy
of the ap_parm value in the APPLBLK structure. The custom routine should return
a short containing any remaining ob_state bits you wish the GUI Library to draw
over your custom object.

Dialogs
Dialog boxes are modal forms of user input. This means that no other interaction can occur
between the user and applications until the requirements of the dialog have been met and it

48
 3.19 Using the Graphical User Interface (GUI)

is exited. A normal dialog box consists of an object tree with a BOX as its root object and
any number of other controls that accept user input. Both alert boxes and the file selector are
examples of dialog boxes.
The form_do() function performs the simplest method of using a dialog box. Simply con-
struct an OBJECT tree with at least one EXIT or TOUCHEXIT object and call form_do()1 .
All interaction with the dialog like editable fields, radio buttons, and selectable objects will be
maintained by the X11-Basic library until the user strikes an EXIT or TOUCHEXIT object.

3.19.4 The gui file format

The *.gui file format, which is basically an ASCII representation of the ATARI ST recource
files (*.rsc), can be converted to X11-Basic code, which then can handle message boxes and
forms. The converter gui2bas(1) does this job. For conversion of ATARI ST recource files
to *.gui Files see rs 2gui(1).
The *.gui file consists of Lines and Blocks which specify objects and their hirarchical de-
pendencies. The generic format of such an object is:

label: TYPE(variables) {
... blo k ...
}

The label is optional and gives the object a name. Depending on TYPE of the object, one
or more variables are given as a comma separated list in brackets.
Each object may start a block with ’{’ at the end of the line. Inside this block there might be
one or more objects given which then are considered as sub-objects of the one whichopened
the block. The block will be closed by a ’}’ in a single line.
Example:
' Little sele tor box ( ) Markus Hoffmann 07.2003
' onvert this with gui2bas !
' as an example for the use of the gui system
' with X11-Basi

BOX(X=0,Y=0,W=74,H=14, FRAME=2, FRAMECOL=1, TEXTCOL=1, BGCOL=0, PATTERN=0, TEXTMODE=0, STATE=OUTLINED+)

BOXTEXT(X=2,Y=1,W=70,H=1, TEXT="Sele t option ...", FONT=3, JUST=2, COLOR=4513, BORDER=253, STATE=SHA
BOX(X=2,Y=3,W=60,H=10, FRAME=-1, FRAMECOL=1, TEXTCOL=1, BGCOL=0, PATTERN=0, TEXTMODE=0) {
FTEXT(X=1,Y=1,W=30,H=1,COLOR=4513,FONT=3,BORDER=1,TEXT="Line 1", PTMP="____________________________
FTEXT(X=1,Y=2,W=30,H=1,COLOR=4513,FONT=3,BORDER=1,TEXT="", PTMP="__________________________________
FTEXT(X=1,Y=3,W=30,H=1,COLOR=4513,FONT=3,BORDER=1,TEXT="", PTMP="__________________________________
FTEXT(X=1,Y=4,W=30,H=1,COLOR=4513,FONT=3,BORDER=1,TEXT="", PTMP="__________________________________
BOX(X=2,Y=6,W=50,H=3, FRAME=-1, FRAMECOL=1, TEXTCOL=1, BGCOL=1, PATTERN=5, TEXTMODE=0) {
BUTTON(X=2,Y=1,W=4,H=1, TEXT="ON",STATE=SELECTED, FLAGS=RADIOBUTTON+SELECTABLE,FRAME=2, FRAMECOL=
BUTTON(X=8,Y=1,W=4,H=1, TEXT="OFF",FLAGS=RADIOBUTTON+SELECTABLE,FRAME=2, FRAMECOL=1, TEXTCOL=1, B
}
}
1
Before you should display the dialog box using the obj _draw() function. Maybe you also want to center
the dialog with form_ enter() andsave and redraw the background with form_dial().

49
3 Getting Started

ok: BUTTON(X=65,Y=4,W=7,H=4, TEXT="OK", FLAGS=SELECTABLE+DEFAULT+EXIT)

an el: BUTTON(X=65,Y=9,W=7,H=4, TEXT="CANCEL", FLAGS=SELECTABLE+EXIT+LASTOB+)
}

3.19.5 Menus
Most applications use a menu bar to allow the user to navigate through program options. In
addition, future versions of X11-Basic will allow popup menus and drop-down list boxes (a
special form of a popup menu).
Here is a simple example program, which demonstrates the handling of a drop down menu.
' Test-program for Drop-Down-Menus
'
DIM field$(50)
FOR i=0 TO 50
READ field$(i)
EXIT IF field$(i)="***"
NEXT i
oh=0
field$(i)=""
DATA "INFO"," Menutest"
DATA "---------------"
DATA "- A ess.1","- A ess.2","- A ess.3","- A ess.4","- A ess.5"
DATA "- A ess.6",""
DATA "FILE"," new"," open ..."," save"," save as ...","--------------"
DATA " print","--------------"," Quit",""
DATA "EDIT"," ut"," opy"," paste","----------"," help1"," helper"
DATA " assist",""
DATA "HELP"," online help","--------------"," edifa "," editor"," edilink"
DATA " edouard",""
DATA "***"
grau=get_ olor(32000,32000,32000)
olor grau
pbox 0,0,640,400
MENUDEF field$(),menua tion
DO
pause 0.05
MENU
LOOP
quit
PROCEDURE menua tion(k)
lo al b
IF (field$(k)=" Quit") OR (field$(k)=" exit")
quit
ELSE IF field$(k)=" online help"
oh=not oh
MENUSET k,4*abs(oh)
ELSE IF field$(k)=" Menutest"
~form_alert(1,"[0℄[---- Menutest ----||( ) Markus Hoffmann 2001|X11-Basi V.1.03℄[ OK ℄")
ELSE
PRINT "MENU sele ted ";k;" ontents: ";field$(k)
b=form_alert(1,"[1℄[--- Menutest ---||You sele ted item (No. "+str$(k)+"),| for whi h was n
if b=2
MENUSET k,8
endif
ENDIF
RETURN

50
 3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

This chapter explaines, how you can use X11-Basic programs for WEB-interfacing. Espe-
cially via the use of so-called CGI-Scripts.

3.20.1 What is CGI?

CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface — a term you don’t really need to know. In short,
CGI defines how web servers and web browsers handle information from HTML forms on
web pages. This means instead of the WEB server sending static web pages to the clients, it
can invoke a program, typically called a cgi-script, to generate the page on the time the request
was received. These cgi"-scripts take some action, and then send a results page back to the
user’s web browser. The results page might be different every time the program is run.
And these programs can be X11-Basic programs.

3.20.2 Configuration
1. All X11-Basic scripts must begin with the following statement, on the first line:

#!/usr/bin/xbasi

Because Unix does not map file suffixes to programs, there has to be a way to tell Unix
that this file is a X11-Basic program, and that it is to be executed by the X11-Basic
interpreter xbasic. This is seen before in shell scripts, in which the first line tells Unix
to execute it with one of the shell programs. The xbasic executable, which will take this
file, parse it, and execute it, is located in the directory /usr/bin. This may be different on
some systems. If you are not sure where the xbasic executable is, type which xbasic on
the command line, and it will return you the path.

2. All scripts should be marked as executable by the system.

Executable files are types that contain instructions for the machine or an interpreter, such
as xbasic, to execute. To mark a file as executable, you need to alter the file permissions
on the script file. There are three basic permissions: read, write, and execute. There are
also three levels of access: owner, group, and anyone. X11-Basic files should have their
permissions changed so that you, the owner, has permission to read, write and execute
your file, while others only have permission to read and execute your file. This is done
with the following command:

hmod 755 filename.bas

The number 755 is the file access mask. The first digit is your permission; it is 7 for full
access. The user and anyone settings are 5 for read and execute.

51
3 Getting Started

3. The very first print statement in a X11-Basic cgi script that returns HTML should be:

print "Content-type: text/html"+ hr$(13)

print ""+ hr$(13)
flush

When your X11-Basic script is going to return an HTML file, you must have this as the
very first print statement in order to tell the web server that this is an HTML file. There
must be two end of line characters (CR+LF) (the aditional hr$(13)) in order for this
to work. The flush statement ensures, that this statement ist sent to the web-server. After
that, you usually print "<HTML><BODY>" etc.

4. End your program with quit

Do not use END. Otherwise the cgi-program will remain is the servers memory as a
zombie.

5. Always use the POST method with HTML forms

There are 2 ways to get information from the client to the web server. The GET
method takes all of the data from the forms and concatenates it onto the end of the
URL. This information is then passed to the CGI program as an environment variable
(QUERY_STRING). Because the GET method has the limitation of being 1024 characters
long, it is best to use the POST method. This takes the data and sends it allong with
the request to the web server, without the user seeing the ugly strings in the URL. This
information is passed to the CGI program through standard in, which the program can
easilly read from. To use the POST method, make sure that your HTML form tag has
METHOD=POST (no quotes).

6. HTML forms must reference the cgi script to be executed.

In your FORM tag, there is an ACTION attribute. This is like the HREF attribute for a
link. It should be the URL of the CGI program you want the form data sent to. Usually
this is ACTION="/ gi-bin/filename.bas"

7. X11-Basic-cgi files usually go in the cgi-bin directory of your web server.

The web server has a "root" directory. This is the highest directory your HTML files
can access. (You don’t want clients to be able to snoop around your entire system, so
the rest of the system is sealed off) in this directory, there is usually one called cgi-bin,
where all the CGI programs go. Some web service providers give each user a cgi-local
directory in their home directory where they can put their cgi scripts. If this is the case,
use this one instead.

52
 3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

3.20.3 How it works

When a user activates a link to a gateway script, input is sent to the server. The server formats
this data into environment variables and checks to see whether additional data was submitted
via the standard input stream.

Environment Variables
Input to CGI scripts is usually in the form of environment variables. The environment variables
passed to gateway scripts are associated with the browser requesting information from the
server, the server processing the request, and the data passed in the request. Environment
variables are case-sensitive and are normally used as described in this section. Although some
environment variables are system-specific, many environment variables are standard. The
standard variables are shown in the following Table:

Standard environment variables.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Variable | Purpose |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| AUTH_TYPE | Spe ifies the authenti ation method and |
| | is used to validate a user's a ess. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| CONTENT_LENGTH | Used to provide a way of tra king the |
| | length of the data string as a numeri |
| | value. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| CONTENT_TYPE | Indi ates the MIME type of data. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| GATEWAY_INTERFACE | Indi ates whi h version of the CGI |
| | standard the server is using. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| HTTP_A EPT | Indi ates the MIME ontent types the |
| | browser will a ept, as passed to the |
| | gateway s ript via the server. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| HTTP_USER_AGENT | Indi ates the type of browser used to |
| | send the request, as passed to the |
| | gateway s ript via the server. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| PATH_INFO | Identifies the extra information |
| | in luded in the URL after the |
| | identifi ation of the CGI s ript. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| PATH_TRANSLATED | Set by the server based on the PATH_INFO |
| | variable. The server translates the |

53
3 Getting Started

| | PATH_INFO variable into this variable. |

|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| QUERY_STRING | Set to the query string (if the URL |
| | ontains a query string). |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| REMOTE_ADDR | Identifies the Internet Proto ol address |
| | of the remote omputer making the |
| | request. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| REMOTE_HOST | Identifies the name of the ma hine |
| | making the request. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| REMOTE_IDENT | Identifies the ma hine making the |
| | request. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| REMOTE_USER | Identifies the user name as |
| | authenti ated by the user. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| REQUEST_METHOD | Indi ates the method by whi h the |
| | request was made. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| SCRIPT_NAME | Identifies the virtual path to the |
| | s ript being exe uted. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| SERVER_NAME | Identifies the server by its host name, |
| | alias, or IP address. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| SERVER_PORT | Identifies the port number the server |
| | re eived the request on. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| SERVER_PROTOCOL | Indi ates the proto ol of the request |
| | sent to the server. |
|-------------------+------------------------------------------|
| SERVER_SOFTWARE | Identifies the Web server software. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

AUTH_TYPE The AUTH_TYPE variable provides access control to protected areas of the Web
server and can be used only on servers that support user authentication. If an area of the
Web site has no access control, the AUTH_TYPE variable has no value associated with it.
If an area of the Web site has access control, the AUTH_TYPE variable is set to a specific
value that identifies the authentication scheme being used.
Using this mechanism, the server can challenge a client’s request and the client can
respond. To do this, the server sets a value for the AUTH_TYPE variable and the client
supplies a matching value. The next step is to authenticate the user. Using the basic
authentication scheme, the user’s browser must supply authentication information that
uniquely identifies the user. This information includes a user ID and password.
Under the current implementation of HTTP, HTTP 1.0, the basic authentication scheme

54
 3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

is the most commonly used authentication method. To specify this method, set the
AUTH_TYPE variable as follows: AUTH_TYPE = Basi
CONTENT_LENGTH The CONTENT_LENGTH variable provides a way of tracking the length
of the data string. This variable tells the client and server how much data to read on the
standard input stream. The value of the variable corresponds to the number of characters
in the data passed with the request. If no data is being passed, the variable has no value.

CONTENT_TYPE The CONTENT_TYPE variable indicates the data’s MIME type. This vari-
able is set only when attached data is passed using the standard input or output stream.
The value assigned to the variable identifies the MIME type and subtype as follows:

Basi MIME types.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Type | Des ription |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| appli ation | Binary data that an be exe uted or used with |
| | another appli ation |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| audio | A sound file that requires an output devi e to |
| | preview |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| image | A pi ture that requires an output devi e to |
| | preview |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| message | An en apsulated mail message |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| multipart | Data onsisting of multiple parts and possibly |
| | many data types |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| text | Textual data that an be represented in any |
| | hara ter set or formatting language |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| video | A video file that requires an output devi e to |
| | preview |
|-------------+------------------------------------------------|
| x-world | Experimental data type for world files |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

MIME subtypes are defined in three categories: primary, additionally defined, and ex-
tended. The primary subtype is the primary type of data adopted for use as a MIME
content type. Additionally defined data types are additional subtypes that have been of-
ficially adopted as MIME content types. Extended data types are experimental subtypes
that have not been officially adopted as MIME content types. You can easily identify
extended subtypes because they begin with the letter x followed by a hyphen. The fol-
lowing Table lists common MIME types and their descriptions.

55
3 Getting Started

Common MIME types.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Type/Subtype | Des ription |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/msword | Mi rosoft Word do ument |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/o tet-stream | Binary data that an be |
| | exe uted or used with another |
| | appli ation |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/pdf | ACROBAT PDF do ument |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/posts ript | Posts ript-formatted data |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/rtf | Ri h Text Format (RTF) |
| | do ument |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/x- ompress | Data that has been ompressed |
| | using UNIX ompress |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/x-dvi | Devi e-independent file |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/x-gzip | Data that has been ompressed |
| | using UNIX gzip |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/x-latex | LATEX do ument |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| appli ation/x-tar | Data that has been ar hived |
| | using UNIX tar |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| audio/basi | Audio in a nondes ript format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| audio/x-wav | Audio in Mi rosoft WAV format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/gif | Image in gif format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/jpeg | Image in JPEG format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/tiff | Image in TIFF format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/x-portable-bitmap | Portable bitmap |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/x-portable-graymap | Portable graymap |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/x-portable-pixmap | Portable pixmap |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/x-xbitmap | X-bitmap |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| image/x-xpixmap | X-pixmap |

56
 3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| message/external-body | Message with external data |
| | sour e |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| message/partial | Fragmented or partial message |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| message/rf 822 | RFC 822- ompliant message |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| multipart/alternative | Data with alternative formats |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| multipart/digest | Multipart message digest |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| multipart/mixed | Multipart message with data |
| | in multiple formats |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| multipart/parallel | Multipart data with parts |
| | that should be viewed |
| | simultaneously |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| text/html | HTML-formatted text |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| text/plain | Plain text with no HTML |
| | formatting in luded |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| video/mpeg | Video in the MPEG format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| video/qui ktime | Video in the Apple Qui kTime |
| | format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| video/x-msvideo | Video in the Mi rosoft AVI |
| | format |
|------------------------------+-------------------------------|
| x-world/x-vrml | VRML world file |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

There are some more common MIME types.

Some MIME content types can be used with additional parameters. These content types
include text/plain, text/html, and all multipart message data. The charset parameter,
which is optional, is used with the text/plain type to identify the character set used for the
data. If a charset is not specified, the default value charset=us-ascii is assumed. Other
values for charset include any character set approved by the International Standards
Organization. These character sets are defined by ISO-8859-1 to ISO-8859-9 and are
specified as follows:

CONTENT_TYPE = text/plain; harset=iso-8859-1

The boundary parameter, which is required, is used with multipart data to identify the
boundary string that separates message parts. The boundary value is set to a string of

57
3 Getting Started

1 to 70 characters. Although the string cannot end in a space, it can contain any valid
letter or number and can include spaces and a limited set of special characters. Boundary
parameters are unique strings that are defined as follows:

CONTENT_TYPE = multipart/mixed; boundary=boundary_string

GATEWAY_INTERFACE The GATEWAY_INTERFACE variable indicates which version of the

CGI specification the server is using. The value assigned to the variable identifies the
name and version of the specification used as follows:

GATEWAY_INTERFACE = name/version

The current version of the CGI specification is 1.1. A server conforming to this version
would set the GATEWAY_INTERFACE variable as follows:

GATEWAY_INTERFACE = CGI/1.1

HTTP_ACCEPT The HTTP_ACCEPT variable defines the types of data the client will accept.
The acceptable values are expressed as a type/subtype pair. Each type/subtype pair is
separated by commas.

HTTP_USER_AGENT The HTTP_USER_AGENT variable identifies the type of browser used

to send the request. The acceptable values are expressed as software type/version or
library/version.

PATH_INFO The PATH_INFO variable specifies extra path information and can be used to
send additional information to a gateway script. The extra path information follows the
URL to the gateway script referenced. Generally, this information is a virtual or relative
path to a resource that the server must interpret.

PATH_TRANSLATED Servers translate the PATH_INFO variable into the PATH_TRANSLATED

variable by inserting the default Web document’s directory path in front of the extra path
information.

QUERY_STRING The QUERY_STRING variable specifies an URL-encoded search string.

You set this variable when you use the GET method to submit a fill-out form or when
you use an ISINDEX query to search a document. The query string is separated from the
URL by a question mark. The user submits all the information following the question
mark separating the URL from the query string. The following is an example:

/ gi-bin/doit. gi?string

58
 3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

When the query string is URL-encoded, the browser encodes key parts of the string.
The plus sign is a placeholder between words and acts as a substitute for spaces:

/ gi-bin/doit. gi?word1+word2+word3

Equal signs separate keys assigned by the publisher from values entered by the user. In
the following example, response is the key assigned by the publisher, and never is the
value entered by the user:

/ gi-bin/doit. gi?response=never

Ampersand symbols separate sets of keys and values. In the following example, re-
sponse is the first key assigned by the publisher, and sometimes is the value entered by
the user. The second key assigned by the publisher is reason, and the value entered by
the user is I am not really sure:

/ gi-bin/doit. gi?response=sometimes&reason=I+am+not+really+sure

Finally, the percent sign is used to identify escape characters. Following the percent sign
is an escape code for a special character expressed as a hexadecimal value. Here is how
the previous query string could be rewritten using the escape code for an apostrophe:

/ gi-bin/doit. gi?response=sometimes&reason=I%27m+not+really+sure

REMOTE_ADDR The REMOTE_ADDR variable is set to the Internet Protocol (IP) address of
the remote computer making the request.

REMOTE_HOST The REMOTE_HOST variable specifies the name of the host computer mak-
ing a request. This variable is set only if the server can figure out this information using
a reverse lookup procedure.

REMOTE_IDENT The REMOTE_IDENT variable identifies the remote user making a request.
The variable is set only if the server and the remote machine making the request sup-
port the identification protocol. Further, information on the remote user is not always
available, so you should not rely on it even when it is available.

REMOTE_USER The REMOTE_USER variable is the user name as authenticated by the user,
and as such is the only variable you should rely upon to identify a user. As with other
types of user authentication, this variable is set only if the server supports user authen-
tication and if the gateway script is protected.

59
3 Getting Started

REQUEST_METHOD The REQUEST_METHOD variable specifies the method by which the

request was made. The methods could be any of GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, LINK
and UNLINK.
The GET, HEAD and POST methods are the most commonly used request methods. Both
GET and POST are used to submit forms.
SCRIPT_NAME The SCRIPT_NAME variable specifies the virtual path to the script being
executed. This information is useful if the script generates an HTML document that
references the script.
SERVER_NAME The SERVER_NAME variable identifies the server by its host name, alias, or
IP address. This variable is always set.
SERVER_PORT The SERVER_PORT variable specifies the port number on which the server
received the request. This information can be interpreted from the URL to the script if
necessary. However, most servers use the default port of 80 for HTTP requests.
SERVER_PROTOCOL The SERVER_PROTOCOL variable identifies the protocol used to send
the request. The value assigned to the variable identifies the name and version of the
protocol used. The format is name/version, such as HTTP/1.0.
SERVER_SOFTWARE The SERVER_SOFTWARE variable identifies the name and version of
the server software. The format for values assigned to the variable is name/version, such
as CERN/2.17.

CGI Standard Input

Most input sent to a Web server is used to set environment variables, yet not all input fits neatly
into an environment variable. When a user submits data to be processed by a gateway script,
this data is received as an URL-encoded search string or through the standard input stream.
The server knows how to process this data because of the method (either POST or GET in
HTTP 1.0) used to submit the data.
Sending data as standard input is the most direct way to send data. The server tells the
gateway script how many eight-bit sets of data to read from standard input. The script opens
the standard input stream and reads the specified amount of data. Although long URL-encoded
search strings may get truncated, data sent on the standard input stream will not. Consequently,
the standard input stream is the preferred way to pass data.

Which CGI Input Method to use?

You can identify a submission method when you create your fill-out forms. Under HTTP 1.0,
two submission methods for forms exist. The HTTP GET method uses URL-encoded search
strings. When a server receives an URL-encoded search string, the server assigns the value of
the search string to the QUERY_STRING variable.

60
 3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

The HTTP POST method uses the standard input streams. When a server receives data by
the standard input stream, the server assigns the value associated with the length of the input
stream to the CONTENT_LENGTH variable.

Output from CGI Scripts

After the script finishes processing the input, the script should return output to the server. The
server will then return the output to the client. Generally, this output is in the form of an HTTP
response that includes a header followed by a blank line and a body. Although the CGI header
output is strictly formatted, the body of the output is formatted in the manner you specify in
the header. For example, the body can contain an HTML document for the client to display.

CGI Headers

CGI headers contain directives to the server. Currently, these three server directives are valid:

* Content-Type
* Lo ation
* Status

A single header can contain one or all of the server directives. Your CGI script outputs
these directives to the server. Although the header is followed by a blank line that separates
the header from the body, the output does not have to contain a body.
The Content-Type field in a CGI header identifies the MIME type of the data you are
sending back to the client. Usually the data output from a script is a fully formatted document,
such as an HTML document. You could specify this output in the header as follows:

Content-Type: text/html

But of course, if your program outputs other data like images etc. you should specify the
corresponding content type.

Locations The output of your script doesn’t have to be a document created within the
script. You can reference any document on the Web using the Location field. The Location
field references a file by its URL. Servers process location references either directly or indi-
rectly depending on the location of the file. If the server can find the file locally, it passes the
file to the client. Otherwise, the server redirects the URL to the client and the client has to
retrieve the file. You can specify a location in a script as follows:

Lo ation: http://www.new-jokes. om/

61
3 Getting Started

Status The Status field passes a status line to the server for forwarding to the client. Status
codes are expressed as a three-digit code followed by a string that generally explains what has
occurred. The first digit of a status code shows the general status as follows:

1XX Not yet allo ated

2XX Su ess
3XX Redire tion
4XX Client error
5XX Server error

Although many status codes are used by servers, the status codes you pass to a client via
your CGI script are usually client error codes. Suppose the script could not find a file and you
have specified that in such cases, instead of returning nothing, the script should output an error
code. Here is a list of the client error codes you may want to use:

401 Unauthorized Authenti ation has failed.

User is not allowed to a ess the file and should try again.

403 Forbidden. The request is not a eptable.

User is not permitted to a ess file.

404 Not found. The spe ified resour e ould not be found.

405 Method not allowed. The submission method used is not allowed.

3.20.4 Example cgi-Script envtest. gi

Here is a simple sample cgi-script, which simply returns all the information which it gets from
the web server as a html page.

#!/usr/bin/xbasi
print "Content-type: text/html"+ hr$(13)
print ""+ hr$(13)
flush
print "<html><head><TITLE>Test CGI</TITLE><head><body>"
print "<h1>Commandline:</h1>"
i=0
while len(param$(i))
print str$(i)+": "+param$(i)+"<br>"
in i
wend
print "<h1>Environment:</h1><pre>"
flush ! flush the output before another program is exe uted !
system "env"
print "</pre><h1>Stdin:</h1><pre>"
length=val(env$("CONTENT_LENGTH"))
if length
for i=0 to length-1
t$=t$+ hr$(inp(-2))
next i
print t$

62
 3.20 WEB programming with X11-Basic

endif
print "</pre>"
print "<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION=/ gi-bin/envtest. gi>"
print "Name: <INPUT NAME=name><BR>"
print "Email: <INPUT NAME=email><BR>"
print "<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="+ hr$(34)+"Test POST Method"+ hr$(34)+">"
print "</FORM>"
print "<hr><h6>( ) Markus Hoffmann gi with X11-basi </h6></body></html>"
flush
quit

63
4 Quick reference

4.1 reserved variable names

There are some reserved variables. Some Keywords may not work as varable names as well.
Although there is no checking done, parsing errors could occure. Please try the command
LET in such cases. In general, as long as an ending of a variable name is different from any
command or keyword, it’s usable as name.
Reserved and system variables are:
TRUE -1
FALSE 0
PI 3.14159265359...
TIMER unix system timer, float, seconts
STIMER integer system timer
CTIMER system timer in units of CPU-time
PC line number of next line to be processed
SP internal stack pointer
ROWS number of rows of the terminal
COLS number of columns of the terminal
ERR error number of last error
MOUSEX x coordinate of mouse position relative to window
MOUSEY y coordinate of mouse position
MOUSEK mouse button state
MOUSES state of the shift,alt,ctrl,caps keys
INKEY$ content of the keyboard-buffer
TERMINALNAME$ device name of the standard terminal
TIME$ current time
DATE$ current date

4.2 Abbreviations
In direct mode in the interpreter every command can be abbreviated as long as the command
parser can identify uniquely the command. So you may use q instead of QUIT.
In addition there are abbreviations which are actually alternate commands like:

64
 4.3 Commands

' REM
? PRINT
 GOSUB
~ VOID
& EVAL

4.3 Commands

AFTER n,pro edure execute procedure after n seconds

ARRAYFILL a(),b fills array with value
ARRAYCOPY dest(),sou e() copies array including Dimensionierung
BEEP Beep (on TTY/console)
BELL same as BEEP
BGET #f,a,n read n bytes from file #f to adress a
BLOAD f$,a[,l℄ reads entire file (given by name) to adress a
BMOVE q,z,n copies a block of n bytes from adress q to z
BPUT #f,a,n writes n bytes from adress a to file/channel f
BREAK same as EXIT IF true
BSAVE f$,a,l saves l bytes in memory at adress a to file f$
CALL adr[,par,...℄ see EXEC
CASE onst see SELECT * CASE * DEFAULT * ENDSELECT
CHAIN bas$ executes another basic program
CLEAR clear and remove all variables
CLOSE [[#℄n℄ close file, I/O channel or link
CLR a,b, (),f$ clear variables
CLS clear (text)screen
CONT continue (after STOP)
DATA 1,"Hallo",... define constants
DEFAULT see SELECT * CASE * DEFAULT * ENDSELECT
DIM Declarate array
DO * LOOP Loop
DPOKE adr,word write short int word to adr
DUMP lists all used variable names
DUMP "" list of Funktionen und Prozeduren
DUMP ":" list of all labels
DUMP "#" list of open Files
DUMP "K" list of implementierten Kommandos
DUMP "F" list of internal functions
ECHO ON/OFF same as TRON * TROFF
EDIT call default editor to edit program

65
4 Quick reference

ELSE see IF * ELSE * ENDIF

END program end, enter interactive mode
ENDFUNCTION see FUNCTION * ENDFUNCTION
ENDIF see IF * ELSE * ENDIF
ENDSELECT see SELECT * CASE * DEFAULT * ENDSELECT
ERASE a()[,b$(),...℄ erase arrays
ERROR n execute error number n
EVAL t$ execute X11-Basic command contained in t$
EVERY n,pro edure invokes procedure every n seconds
EXEC adr[,var[,...℄℄ call a C subroutine at pointer adr.
EXIT IF a exit loop if condition a is TRUE
FLUSH [#n℄ flush output
FOR * NEXT For Next loop
FORM_INPUT t$ input string with default value
FUNCTION * ENDFUNC define function
GOSUB pro edure(varliste) call subroutine
GOTO label goto label
HELP <expr> prints short help on expr
HOME Textcursor home
IF * ELSE IF * ELSE * ENDIF conditions
INC a increments variable a
INPUT [#n,℄["text";℄ varlist read values for variables
LET a=b enforces assignment
LINEINPUT [#n,℄t$ read entire line from channel/file/console
LINK #n,t$ load shared object file t$
LIST [s,e℄ List programm code (from line s to e)
LOAD a$ load Program
LOCAL var[,var2,...℄ specifies a list of vars to be local in Procedure or function
LOCATE olumn,row Place cursor on column and row
LOOP see DO * LOOP
LPOKE adr,long writes long int value to pointer adr
LSET t$=a$
MERGE f$ Merges bas-file to actual program code
MUL a,b same as a=a*b
NEW clear and erase all variables and stop.
NEXT see FOR * NEXT
NOP no operation do nothing
NOOP no operation do nothing
ON * GOSUB pro 1[,pro 2,...℄
ON * GOTO label1[,label2,...℄
ON BREAK GOSUB pro
ON ERROR GOSUB pro

66
 4.3 Commands

OPEN mode$,#n,filename$ open a file or socket for input and/or output

OUT #n,a out byte a to channel n
PAUSE se pauses sec seconds
PLIST formatted listing
POKE adr,byte write byte to pointer adr
PRINT a;b$ console output
PRINT #n; output to channel/file
PRINT AT(x,y); locate textcursor at row y and column x
PRINT a USING f$ print number with formatter
PROCEDURE pro name [(p1 [,p2℄ ... )℄ * RETURN
PSAVE a$ writes the reformatted BASIC-program into file a$
PUTBACK [#n,℄a put back a char to channel/file/console
QUIT quits the X11-BASIC-Interpreter
RANDOMIZE [seed℄ Sets seed for random generator, default is TIMER
READ var reads constant from DATA statement
RELSEEK #n,d Place filepointer on new relative position d
REM omment comment
REPEAT see REPEAT * UNTIL
RESTORE [label℄ (re)sets pointer for READ-statement to label
RESUME
RETURN define the end of a PROCEDURE
RETURN expr return value from FUNCTION
RSRC_LOAD filename$ loads GEM rsc-File (ATARI ST)
RSRC_FREE frees GEM rsc-File (ATARI ST)
RUN start program
SAVE [a$℄ writes the BASIC-program into file with the name a$
SEEK #n,d Place filepointer on new absolute position d
SETENV t$=a$ Sets environmentvar t$ using value a$
SORT a(),n[,b()℄ Sort array
SOUND freq Sound the internal speaker
SWAP
SYSTEM t$ excecute shell with command t$
TROFF Trace mode off
TRON Trace mode on (for debugging)
UNLINK #n unlinks shared object #n
UNTIL exp if exp is false goto REPEAT
VERSION shows X11-Basic version number and date
VOID a claculates expresion a and discard result
WORT_SEP t$,d$,mode,a$,b$ separates string t$ by deliminator d$ in a$ and b$

67
4 Quick reference

4.4 Graphic commands

ALERT a,b$, ,d$,var[,ret$℄ Infobox

BOX x1,y1,x2,y2 draw a frame
CIRCLE x,y,r draw a circle
CLEARW [[#℄n℄ clear graphic window
CLOSEW [[#℄n℄ close graphic window
COLOR f[,b℄ Set foreground color (and background color)
DEFFILL ,a,b set fill style and pattern
DEFLINE a,b set line width and type
DEFMARK ,a,g set colour, size, type (POLYMARK)
DEFMOUSE i set mouse cursor type
DEFTEXT ,s,r,g set text properties for ltext
DRAW [[x1,y1℄ TO℄ x2,y2 draw line
ELLIPSE x,y,a,b[,a1,a2℄ draw an ellipse
FILESELECT tit$,pfad$,default$,f$
display a fileselector-box
GET x,y,w,h,g$ Grafik-Ausschnitt in g$ speichern
GPRINT like PRINT, but the output goes to the graphic window
GRAPHMODE mode set graphic-mode
KEYEVENT a,b Waits until key is pressed
LINE x1,y1,x2,y2 draw a line
LTEXT x,y,t$ Linegraphic-Text
MENUDEF array$(),pro read text for menu-header from array$()
MENUKILL deletes menue
MENUSET n,x change menu-point #n with value x
MENU STOP switch off the menu
ONMENU execute the menu and
MENU wait for menue-events
MOUSE x,y,k gets position and state of mouse
MOUSEEVENT wait for mouse event
MOTIONEVENT wait for mouse movement
MOVEW n,x,y move window
OPENW n open window
PBOX x1,y1,x2,y2 draw filled box
PCIRCLE x,y,r[,a1,a2℄ draw filled cirle
PELLIPSE x,y,a,b[,a1,a2℄ draw filled ellipse
PLOT x,y draw point
POLYLINE n,x(),y() draw polygon in (x(),y())
POLYFILL n,x(),y() draw filled polygon
POLYMARK n,x(),y() draw polygon points
PRBOX x1,y1,x2,y2 draw filled rounded box

68
 4.5 Math commands

PUT x,y,g$ map graphic at position

PUT_BITMAP t$,i,i,i,i map bitmap
RBOX x1,y1,x2,y2 draws a rounded box
SCOPE a(),typ,ys,yo fast plot a()
SCOPE y(),x(),typ,ys,yo,xs,xo fast 2D plot
SGET s reen$ capture graphic and store it in screen$
SHOWPAGE maps all graphic to window
SPUT s reen$ maps (xwd-)graphic to window
TEXT x,y,t$ draw text
TITLEW n,t$ set window title
VSYNC same as SHOWPAGE
XLOAD load a program, with FILESELECTOR
XRUN load and run a program, with FILESELECTOR

4.5 Math commands

ADD a,b same as a=a+b but faster

DEC var same as var=var-1 but faster
DIV a,b same as a=a/b but faster
FFT a(),i fast fourier transformation on 1D array.
FIT x(),y()[,yerr()℄,n,fun (x,a,b, ,...)
fits function to data
FIT_LINEAR x(),y()[,[xerr(),℄yerr()℄,n,a,b[,siga,sigb, hi2,q℄
linear regression with errors
INC var same as var=var+1 but faster
MUL a,b same as a=a*b but faster
SORT a(),n[,b()℄ sorts n values of a() to incrementing order
SUB a,b same as a=a-b but faster

4.6 Math functions

The math function library contains a comprehensive set of mathematics functions, including:

• trigonometric

• arc-trigonometric

• hyperbolic

69
4 Quick reference

• arc-hyperbolic

• logarithmic ( base e and base 10 )

• exponential ( base e and base 10 )

• miscellaneous ( square root, power, etc. )

Some math functions are defined on Vectors and Matrices.

b=ABS(a) absolut value

=ADD(a,b) add
a=CINT(b) Truncate number (NOTE: differs from INT() ! )
a=RND(dummy) random number between 0 and 1
a=GASDEV(dummy) random number Gauss distribution
a=RAND(dummy) random integer number between 0 and a large number
a=RANDOM(n) random integer number between 0 and n
i=SGN(a) sign of a (-1,0,1)
b=SQR(a) square root
b=SQRT(a) square root
b=TRUNC(a) round a to the nearest integer not larger in absolute value
b=FRAC(a) fractional (non integer) part of a
b=INT(a) convert to integer
b=LN(a) base e logarithm (natural log)
b=LOG(a) base e logarithm (natural log)
b=LOG10(a) base 10 logarithm
b=EXP(a) base e "anti-log" (e to the x)
b=FAK(a) Fakultaet

4.6.1 Angles
Angles are always radians, for both, arguments and return values.

b=RAD(a) convert degrees to radians

b=DEG(a) convert radians to degrees

70
 4.7 String functions

4.6.2 Trigonometric functions

b=SIN(a) sine
b=COS(a) cosine
b=TAN(a) tangent
b=COT(a) cotangent
b=SEC(a) secant
b=CSC(a) cosecant
b=ASIN(a) arc-sine
b=ACOS(a) arc-cosine
b=ATAN(a) arc-tangent
b=ATAN2(a, ) extended arc-tangent
b=ACOT(a) arc-cotangent
b=ASEC(a) arc-secant
b=ACSC(a) arc-cosecant
b=SINH(a) hyperbolic sine
b=COSH(a) hyperbolic cosine
b=TANH(a) hyperbolic tangent
b=COTH(a) hyperbolic cotangent
b=SECH(a) hyperbolic secant
b=CSCH(a) hyperbolic cosecant
b=ASINH(a) hyperbolic arc-sine
b=ACOSH(a) hyperbolic arc-cosine
b=ATANH(a) hyperbolic arc-tangent
b=ACOTH(a) hyperbolic arc-cotangent
b=ASECH(a) hyperbolic arc-secant
b=ACSCH(a) hyperbolic arc-cosecant

4.6.3 Boolean functions

a=EVEN(d) TRUE if d is even number

a=ODD(d) TRUE if d is odd number

4.7 String functions

b$=BIN$(a[,n℄) convert to binary number
t$=CHR$(a) convert ascii code to string

71
4 Quick reference

t$=ENV$(n$) read value of environment variable n$

t$=HEX$(a[,n℄) a as Hexadecimal number
t$=INLINE$(a$) 7Bit-ASCII to Binary conversion, can be used to include Binary data in
t$=INPUT$(#n,num) reads num bytes from file/channel n
d$=juldate$(a) date$ by julian day a
u$=LCASE$(t$) converts t$ to lower case
t$=LEFT$(a$[,n℄) extraxts from string a$ the first (left) n characters
u$=LOWER$(t$) converts t$ to lower case
m$=MID$(t$,s[,l℄) extraxts from string t$ a string from position s with l characters
t$=MKI$(i) convert Integer to 2-Byte String
t$=MKL$(i) convert integer to 4-Byte String
t$=MKF$(a) convert float to 4 Byte String
t$=MKD$(a) convert float to 8 Byte String
o$=OCT$(d,n) convert integer d to string with octal number
t$=PRG$(i) Program line
t$=RIGHT$(a$[,n℄) returns right n characters of a$
t$=SPACE$(i) returns string consisting of i spaces
t$=STR$(a[,b, ℄) convert number to String of length b with c signifikant digits
t$=STRING$(w$,i) returns string consisting of i copys of w$
t$=SYSTEM$(n$) execute shell with command n$
t$=TERMINALNAME$(#n) returns device name of terminal connected to #n
u$=UCASE$(t$) converts t$ to upper case
t$=unixtime$(i) give time$ from TIMER value
d$=unixdate$(i) give date$ from TIMER value
u$=UPPER$(t$) converts t$ to upper case

4.8 Graphic functions

a=FORM_ALERT(n,t$) message box with default button n

a=FORM_DIAL(i,i,i,i,i,i,i,i,i) complex function
a=FORM_DO(i) do dialog
=GET_COLOR(r,g,b) allocate color by rgb value
dummy=OBJC_DRAW(i,i,i,i,i) draw object tree
ob=OBJC_FIND(tree,x,y) return object number by coordinates
=POINT(x,y) returns color of pixel of graphic in window
a=RSRC_GADDR(typ,nr) get pointer to object tree

72
 4.9 Other functions

4.9 Other functions

a=ARRPTR(b()) pointer to array descriptors

a=ASC(t$) ASCII code of first letter of string
b=CVI(a$) convert 2-byte string to integer
b=CVL(a$) convert 4-byte string to integer
b=CVS(a$) convert 4-byte string to float
b=CVF(a$) convert 4-byte string to float
b=CVD(a$) convert 8-byte string to double
a=DIM?(a()) returns number of elements of array a()
i=DPEEK(adr) read word from pointer adr
b=EOF(#n) TRUE if file pointer reached end of file
a=EVAL(t$) evaluate expression contained in t$
b=EXIST(fname$) TRUE if file fname$ exist
ret=EXEC(adr[,var℄) see command EXEC, returns int
a=FREEFILE() Returns first free filenumber or -1
f=GLOB(a$,b$[,flags℄) TRUE if a$ matches pattern b$
b=GRAY(a) Gray code.
p if a<0: inverse Gray code
a=HYPOT(x,y) returns x2 + y 2
=INP(#n) reads character (Byte) from channel/file.
=INP?(#n) number of chars which can be read from channel/file
a=INP&(#n) reads word (2 Bytes) from channel/file.
i=INP%(#n) reads long (4 Bytes) from channel/file.
a=INSTR(s1$,s2$[,n℄) tests if s2$ is contained in s1$
a=julian(date$) julian day
l=LEN(t$) length of string
p=LOC(#n) Returns value of file position indicator
l=LOF(#n) length of file
b=LPEEK(adr) reads long (4 Bytes) from adress
m=MAX(a,b, ,...) returns biggest value
m=MAX(f()) not implemented jet
m=MIN(a,b, ,...) returns smallest value
m=MIN(array()) not implemented jet
m=MIN(fun tion()) not implemented jet
d=PEEK(a) reads Byte from address a
a=RINSTR(s1$,s2$[,n℄) tests (starting from right) if s2$ is contained in s1$
adr=SYM_ADR(#n,s$) return pointer to symbol with name s$ from shared Object file #n
a=VAL(t$) converts String/ASCII to number
i=VAL?(t$) returns number of chars which can be converted to number
a=VARPTR(v) returns pointer to variable

73
4 Quick reference

4.10 Subroutines and Functions

4.10.1 Subroutines
Subroutines are blocks of code that can be called from elsewhere in the program. Subroutines
can take arguments but return no results. They can access all variables available but also may
have local variables (–> LOCAL). Subroutines are defined with

PROCEDURE name(argumentlist)
... many ommands
RETURN

4.10.2 User defined functions

X11-Basic functions are blocks of code that can be called from elsewhere within an expression
(e.g a=3*myfun tion(b)). Functions can take arguments and must return a result. Variables
are global unless declared local. For local variables changes outside a function have no effect
within the function except as explicitly specified within the function. Functions arguments can
be variables and arrays of any types. Functions can return variables of any type. By default,
arguments are passed by value. Functions can be executed recursively. A function will be
defined by:

FUNCTION name(argumentlist)
.. many more al ulations
RETURN returnvalue
ENDFUNCTION

4.11 Error Messages

X11-Basic can produce a number of internal errors, which are refferred to by a number (ERR)
(see also ERROR).
The meaning of this errors and their text expression is as follows:

0 Divide by zero
1 Overflow
2 Value not integer −2147483648 . . . 2147483647
3 Value not byte 0 . . . 255
4 Value not short −32768 . . . 32767
5 Square root: only positive numbers
6 Logarithmen nur für Zahlen größer Null
7 Unknown Error

74
 4.11 Error Messages

8 Out of Memory
9 Function or command not yet implemented
10 String too long
12 Program too long, buffer size exeeded –> NEW
14 Array () already dimensioned
15 Array () not dimensioned
16 Field index too large
17 Dim too large
18 Wrong number of indicies
19 Procedure not found
20 Label not found
21 Open only "I"nput "O"utput "A"ppend "U"pdate
22 File already opened
23 Wrong file #
24 File not opened
25 Wrong input, no number
26 EOF - reached end of file
27 Too many points for Polyline/Polyfill
28 Array must be one dimensional
30 Merge - no ASCII file
31 Merge - line too long - CANCEL
32 ==> Syntax error
33 Marke nicht definiert
34 Zu wenig Data
35 Data nicht numerisch
36 Programmstruktur Fehlerhaft
37 Diskette voll
38 Befehl im Direktmodus nicht möglich
39 Programmfehler Kein Gosub möglich
40 Clear nicht möglich in For-Next-Schleifen oder Proceduren
41 Cont nicht möglich
42 Zu wenig Parameter
43 Ausdruck zu komplex
44 Funktion nicht definiert
45 Zu viele Parameter
46 Parameter falsch, keine Zahl
47 Parameter falsch, kein String
48 Open "R" - Satzlänge falsch
49 Zu viele "R"-Files (max. 31)
50 Kein "R"-File
51 Parser: Syntax Error <>
52 Fields größer als Satzlänge

75
4 Quick reference

54 GET/PUT Field-String Länge falsch

55 GET/PUT Satznummer falsch
56 Falsche Anzahl Parameter
57 Variable noch nicht initialisiert
58 Variable ist vom falschen Typ
60 Sprite-String-Länge falsch
61 Fehler bei RESERVE
62 Menu falsch
63 Reserve falsch
64 Pointer falsch
65 Feldgröße < 256
66 Kein VAR-Array
67 ASIN/ACOS falsch
68 Falsche VAR-Type
69 ENDFUNC ohne RETURN
70 Unbekannter Fehler 70
71 Index zu groß
80 Matrizenoperationen nur für ein- oder zweidimensionale Felder
81 Matrizen haben nicht die gleiche Ordnung
82 Vektorprodukt nicht definiert
83 Matrizenprodukt nicht definiert
84 Scalarprodukt nicht definiert
85 Transposition nur für zweidimensionale Matrizen
86 Matrix nicht quadratisch
87 Transposition nicht definiert
88 FACT/COMBIN/VARIAT nicht definiert
90 Fehler bei Local
91 Fehler bei For
92 Resume (next) nicht möglich Fatal, For oder Local
93 Stapel-Fehler
100 X11BASIC Version 1.14 Copyright (c) 1997-2007 Markus Hoffmann
101 ** 1 - Segmentation fault : Speicherschutzverletzung
102 ** 2 - Bus Error Peek/Poke falsch?
103 ** 3 - Adress error Ungerade Wort-Adresse! Dpoke/Dpeek, Lpoke/Lpeek?
104 ** 4 - Illegal Instruction : ungültiger Maschinenbefehl
105 ** 5 - Divide by Zero : Division durch Null
106 ** 6 - CHK exeption : CHK-Befehl
107 ** 7 - TRAPV exeption : TRAPV-Befehl
108 ** 8 - Privilege Violation : Privilegverletzung
109 ** 9 - Trace exeption : Trace ohne Monitor
110 ** 10 - Broken pipe : Ausgabeweitergabe abgebrochen
131 * Number of hash collisons exceeds maximum generation counter value.

76
 4.11 Error Messages

132 * Wrong medium type : Andere Diskette einlegen

133 * No medium found : Bitte Disk einlegen
134 * Quota exceeded
135 * Remote I/O error
136 * Is a named type file
137 * No XENIX semaphores available
138 * Not a XENIX named type file
139 * Structure needs cleaning
140 * Stale NFS file handle
141 * Operation now in progress
142 * Operation already in progress
143 * No route to host
144 * Host is down
145 * Connection refused : Verbindungsaufbau verweigert
146 * Connection timed out : Zeitüberschreitung bei Verbindung
147 * Too many references: cannot splice
148 * Cannot send after transport endpoint shutdown
149 * Transport endpoint is not connected : Keine Verbindung, Verbindung unterbrochen ?
150 * Transport endpoint is already connected : Verbindung schon geöffnet
151 * No buffer space available : Speicher voll
152 * Connection reset by peer
153 * Software caused connection abort : Verbindungsabbruch durch Anwender
154 * Network dropped connection because of reset
155 * Network is unreachable
156 * Network is down
157 * Cannot assign requested address : Verbindungsaufbau nicht möglich
158 * Address already in use : Besetzt, Verbindung nicht möglich
159 * Address family not supported by protocol
160 * Protocol family not supported
161 * Operation not supported on transport endpoint
162 * Socket type not supported
163 * Protocol not supported
164 * Protocol not available
165 * Protocol wrong type for socket
166 * Message too long
167 * Destination address required
168 * Socket operation on non-socket : Operation nur mit Sockets erlaubt
169 * Too many users
170 * Streams pipe error
171 * Interrupted system call should be restarted
172 * Illegal byte sequence
173 * Cannot exec a shared library directly

77
4 Quick reference

174 * Attempting to link in too many shared libraries

175 * .lib section in a.out corrupted
176 * Accessing a corrupted shared library
177 * Can not access a needed shared library
178 * Remote address changed
179 * File descriptor in bad state
180 * Name not unique on network
181 * Value too large for defined data type
182 * Not a data message
183 * RFS specific error
184 * Try again : Operation zur Zeit nicht möglich
185 * Too many symbolic links encountered
186 * File name too long : Dateiname zu lang
187 * Resource deadlock would occur
188 * Advertise error
189 * Speicherblockfehler
190 * Kein Binärprogramm
191 * Link has been severed
192 * Object is remote
193 * Math result not representable
194 * Math arg out of domain of func
195 * Cross-device link
196 * Device not a stream
197 * Mount device busy
198 * Block device required
199 * Bad address
200 * No more processes
201 * No children
202 * Exchange full
203 * Interrupted system call
204 * Invalid exchange
205 * Permission denied, you must be super-user
206 * Operation auf diesem Kanal nicht (mehr) möglich
207 * Keine weiteren Dateien
208 * Link number out of range
209 * Level 3 reset
210 * Ungültige Laufwerksbezeichnung
211 * Level 2 not synchronized
212 * Channel number out of range
213 * Identifier removed
214 * No message of desired type
215 * Operation would block

78
 4.11 Error Messages

216 * Ungültige Speicherblockadresse

217 * Directory not empty : Das Verzeichnis ist nicht leer
218 * Function not implemented : Unbekannter Befehl
219 * Ungültiges Handle
220 * Zugriff nicht möglich
221 * Zu viele Dateien offen
222 * Pfadname nicht gefunden
223 * Datei nicht gefunden
224 * Broken pipe : Verbindung wurde unterbrochen
225 * Too many links : Zu viele Links
226 * Read-Only File-System : File-System ist Schreibgeschützt
227 * Illegal seek : Seek falsch
228 * No space left on device : File-System ist voll
229 * File too large : File ist zu gross für diese Operation
230 * Text file busy
231 * Not a typewriter
232 * Too many open files
233 * File table overflow : Zur Zeit sind keine weiteren offenen Files möglich
234 * Invalid argument
235 * Is a directory
236 * Not a directory
237 * No such device
238 * Cross-device link
239 * File exists
240 * Bad Sektor (Verify)
241 * Unbekanntes Gerät
242 * Diskette wurde gewechselt
243 * Permission denied : Die Erlaubnis wurde verweigert
244 * Not enough core : Speicher voll
245 * Lesefehler
246 * Schreibfehler
247 * Kein Papier
248 * Sektor nicht gefunden
249 * Arg list too long : Zu viele Parameter
250 * Seek Error Spur nicht gefunden
251 * Bad Request Ungültiger Befehl
252 * CRC Fehler Disk-Prüfsumme falsch
253 * No such process
254 * Timeout
255 * IO-Error : Allgemeiner IO-Fehler

79
5 X11-Basic command reference
5.1 Syntax templates
This manual describes the syntax of BASIC commands and BASIC functions in a generalized
form. Here is an example:

PRINT [#<devi e-number>,℄ <expression> [<,>|<;> [...℄℄

Those parts of the command that must appear literally in the source code (like PRINT in
the example above) are all uppercase. Descriptions in angle brackets ("<>") are not meant to
appear literally in the source code but are descriptive references to the element that is supposed
to be used in the source code at this place, like a variable, a numeric expression etc. Optional
elements are listed inside square brackets ("[]"). They may be omitted from the command
line. Mutually exclusive alternatives are separated by the "|" character. Exactly one of these
alternatives must appear in the command line. Finally, repetitive syntax is indicated by three
dots "...". Here are some BASIC command lines that all match the syntax template above:

PRINT x
PRINT #1,2*y
PRINT "result = ";result

80
 5.2 A

5.2 A

81
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: ABS()
Syntax: <num-result>=ABS(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the absolute value of an expression. The absolute value is the value without regard
to the sign (negative, zero or positive). The result of ABS will always be a positive number or
zero.

SEE ALSO: SGN()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT ABS(-34.5),ABS(34)
Result: 34.5 34

82
 5.2 A

Function: ACOS()
Syntax: <num-result>=ACOS(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

The acos() is the arcus cosine-function, i.e. the inverse of the cos()-function. It returns the
angle (in radian), which, fed to the cosine-function will produce the argument passed to the
acos()-function.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT ACOS(0.5),ACOS(COS(PI))
Result: 1.047197551197 3.14159265359

SEE ALSO: COS(), ASIN()

*

Function: ACOSH()
Syntax: <num-result>=ACOSH(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

The acosh() is the inverse hyperbolic cosine function.

SEE ALSO: COS(), ASINH()

83
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ADD
Syntax: ADD <num-variable>,<num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Increase value of variable by result of <num-expression>.

EXAMPLE:
a=0
ADD a,5

SEE ALSO: SUB, MUL, DIV

*

Function: ADD()
Syntax: <num-result>=ADD(<num-expression>,<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

(Integer) addition.

EXAMPLE:
b=ADD(a,5)

SEE ALSO: SUB(), MUL(), DIV()

84
 5.2 A

Command: AFTER
Syntax: AFTER <num-variable>, <pro edure-name>
AFTER STOP
AFTER CONT

DESCRIPTION:

Procedures can be called after the expiry of a set time. Time in seconds. To continue the
process, use CONT, and to stop use STOP.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT "You have 10 se onds to enter your name: "
AFTER 10,alarm
INPUT name$
END
PROCEDURE alarm
PRINT "Time out !"
QUIT
RETURN

SEE ALSO: EVERY

85
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ALERT
Syntax: ALERT <type>,<message-string>,<default-button>,
<button-string>,<num-var>[,<string-var>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Creates an alert box and asks for user input.

<type> chooses type of alert symbol, 0=none, 1="!", 2="?", 3="stop" <message-string>
Contains main text. Lines are separated by the ’|’ symbol. Editable fields are started with a
chr$(27) followed by the default text to be edited (until "|"). <button-string> Contains text for
the buttons (separated by ’|’). <default-button> is the button to be highlighted (0=none,1,2,...)
to be selected by just pressing return. <num-var> This variable is set to the number of the
button selected. <string-var> This is a string variable which holds any text-input the user
made. It holds the contents of the editable fields separated by a CHR$(13).

EXAMPLES:
ALERT 1,"Pi k a|button",1,"Left|Right",a
ALERT 0,"You pressed|Button"+STR$(a),0,"OK",a
' Example of editable fields
i=1
name$="TEST01"
posx$="N54◦50'32.3"
t$="Edit waypoint:||Name: "+ hr$(27)+name$+"|"
t$=t$+"Position: "+ hr$(27)+posx$+"|"
ALERT 0,t$,1,"OK|UPDATE|DELETE|CANCEL",a,f$
WHILE LEN(f$)
WORT_SEP f$,CHR$(13),0,a$,f$
PRINT "Field";i;": ",a$
INC i
WEND

SEE ALSO: FORM\_ALERT(), WORT\_SEP, CHR\$()

86
 5.2 A

Operator: AND
Syntax: <num-expression1> AND <num-expression2>

DESCRIPTION:

Used to determine if BOTH conditions are true. If both expression1 AND expression2 are
true (non-zero), the result is true. Returns -1 for true, 0 for false.
Also used to compare bits in binary number operations. 1 AND 1 return a 1, all other
combinations of 0’s and 1’s produce 0.

EXAMPLES:
Print 3=3 AND 4>2 Result: -1 (true)
Print 3>3 AND 5>3 Result: 0 (false)
PRINT (30>20 AND 20<30) Result: -1 (true)
PRINT (4 AND 255) Result: 4

SEE ALSO: NAND, OR, NOT, XOR

*

Function: AND()
Syntax: <num-result>=AND(<num-expression>,<num-expression2>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns <num-expression> AND <num-expression2>

SEE ALSO: OR(), AND

87
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ARRAYCOPY
Syntax: ARRAYCOPY d(),s()

DESCRIPTION:

Copys the contents of array s() to d() (including dimensions). This is the same as the
statement: d()=s().

SEE ALSO: DIM

*

Command: ARRAYFILL
Syntax: ARRAYFILL x(),n
ARRAYFILL x$(),t$

DESCRIPTION:

Assigns the value to all elements of an array or matrix.

EXAMPLE:
DIM a(100)
ARRAYFILL a(),13
PRINT a(22) Result: 13

SEE ALSO: DIM

88
 5.2 A

Function: ARRPTR()
Syntax: <int-result>=ARRPTR(<array>())

DESCRIPTION:

Finds the address of the descriptor of a string or field array.

SEE ALSO: VARPTR()

89
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: ASC()
Syntax: <num-result>=ASC(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the ASCII code value (a number between 0 and 255) of the first character in a string.
ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASC returns 0 if the
length of string is zero or the ASCII code of the string is zero.

SEE ALSO: CHR\$(), CVI(), CVL(), CVS()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT ASC("A"), ASC("T") Result: 65, 84
PRINT ASC("TEST") Result: 84

90
 5.2 A

Function: ASIN()
Syntax: <num-result>=ASIN(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

The asin() is the arcus sine-function, i.e. the inverse of the sin()-function. Or, more elabo-
rate: It Returns the angle (in radian, not degree !), which, fed to the sine-function will produce
the argument passed to the asin()-function.

SEE ALSO: ACOS(), SIN()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT 6*ASIN(0.5) Result: 3.14159265359

Function: ASINH()
Syntax: <num-result>=ASINH(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

The asinh() function calculates the inverse hyperbolic sine of x; that is the value whose
hyperbolic sine is x.

SEE ALSO: ACOSH(), SIN()

91
5 X11-Basic command reference

Keyword: AT()
Syntax: PRINT AT(y,x);[...℄

DESCRIPTION:

The AT-statement takes two numeric arguments (e.g. AT(2,3)) and can be used in combina-
tion with the PRINT- or GPRINT-command.
The two numeric arguments of the AT-function may range from 0 to the width of your
terminal minus 1, and from 0 to the height of your terminal minus 1; if any argument exceeds
these values, it will be truncated accordingly. However, X11-Basic has no influence on the
size of your terminal (80x25 is a common, but not mandatory), the size of your terminal and
the maximum values acceptable within the AT-statement may vary. To get the size of your
terminal you may use the CRSLN and CRSCOL variables.

SEE ALSO: PRINT, GPRINT, TAB(), SPC()

92
 5.2 A

Function: ATN(), ATAN()

Syntax: <num-result>=ATN(<num-expression>)
<num-result>=ATAN(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the angle, in radians, for the inverse tangent of expression.

SEE ALSO: ACOS(), ASIN()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT 4*ATAN(1) Result: 3.14159265359

Function: ATAN2()
Syntax: <num-result>=ATAN2(<num-expression>,<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

The atan()-function has a second form which accepts two arguments: atan2(a,b) which is
(mostly) equivilantly to atan(a/b) except for the fact, that the two-argument-form returns an
angle in the range -pi to pi, whereas the one-argument-form returns an angle in the range -pi/2
to pi/2.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT DEG(ATAN2(0,-1)) Result: 180

SEE ALSO: ATAN()

93
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: ATANH()
Syntax: <num-result>=ATANH(<num-expression>,<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

The atanh() function calculates the inverse hyperbolic tangent of x; that is the value whose
hyperbolic tangent is x. If the absolute value of x is greater than 1.0, acosh() returns not-a-
number (NaN).

SEE ALSO: ATAN()

94
 5.3 B

5.3 B

95
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: BCHG()
Syntax: <num-result>=BCHG(<num-expression>,<num-expression>))

DESCRIPTION:

Allow setting and resetting of bits.

SEE ALSO: BSET(), BCLR()

Function: BCLR()
Syntax: <num-result>=BCLR(<num-expression-x>,<num-expression-y>))

DESCRIPTION:

BCLR sets the y-th bit of x to zero.

SEE ALSO: BSET(), BCHG()

96
 5.3 B

Command: BEEP, BELL

Syntax: BEEP
BELL

DESCRIPTION:

Sounds the speaker of your terminal. This command is not a sound-interface, so you can
neither vary the length or the height of the sound (technically, it just prints chr$(7)). BELL is
exactly the same as BEEP.

SEE ALSO: SOUND

97
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: BGET
Syntax: BGET #<devi e-nr>,<adr>,<len>

DESCRIPTION:

Reads <len> bytes from a data channel into an area of memory starting at address <adr>
Unlike BLOAD, several different areas of memory can be read from a file.

SEE ALSO: BLOAD, BPUT

98
 5.3 B

Function: BIN$()
Syntax: <string-result>=BIN$(<num-expression>[,<num-expression>)℄)

DESCRIPTION:

The bin$()-takes a numeric argument an converts it into a string of binary digits (i.e. ’0’
and ’1’). The length of the output, number of digits can be specified by the optional second
argument.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT BIN$(64),BIN$(-2000,16)
Result: 01000000 1111100000110000

SEE ALSO: HEX\$()

99
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: BLOAD
Syntax: BLOAD <filename>,<address>

DESCRIPTION:

BLOAD reads the specified file into memory. The adress space <address> is pointing to
should be allocated before. You should check if the file exists prior to using this function.
This command is meant to be used for loading binary data. To load a text file, use OPEN and
INPUT # to remain compatible with other BASIC implementations.

SEE ALSO: MALLOC(), BGET, INPUT, INPUT\$(), BSAVE

100
 5.3 B

Command: BMOVE
Syntax: BMOVE <s r>,<dst>,<len>

DESCRIPTION:

Fast movement of memory blocks.

<scr> is the address at which the block to be moved begins. <dst> is the address to which
the block is to moved. <len> is the length of the block in bytes.

SEE ALSO: PEEK(), POKE, BLOAD, BSAVE

101
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: BOUNDARY
Syntax: BOUNDARY <num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Switch off (or on) borders on filled shapes (PBOX, PCIRCLE ..). If the argument is zero -
no border will be drawn.

SEE ALSO: PBOX, PCIRCLE

102
 5.3 B

Command: BOX
Syntax: BOX <x>,<y>,<x2>,<y2>

DESCRIPTION:

Draws a rectangle with corners at (x,y) and (x2,y2).

SEE ALSO: PBOX

103
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: BPUT
Syntax: BPUT #<devi e-nr>,<adr>,<len>

DESCRIPTION:

Reads <len> bytes from an area of memory starting at <adr> out to a data channel.

SEE ALSO: BGET

104
 5.3 B

Command: BREAK
Syntax: BREAK

DESCRIPTION:

BREAK transfers control immediately outside the enclosing loop or select statement. This
is the preferred way of leaving such a statement (rather than goto).

SEE ALSO: EXIT IF

105
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: BSAVE
Syntax: <filename>,<adr>,<len>

DESCRIPTION:

Save <len> bytes in memory from adress <adr> to file. This command is meant be be used
for saving binary data obtained via BLOAD. To save text files, use OPEN and PRINT # to
remain compatible with other BASIC implementations.

SEE ALSO: BLOAD, BPUT

106
 5.3 B

Function: BSET()
Syntax: <num-result>=BSET(<num-expression-x>,<num-expression-y>)

DESCRIPTION:

Allows setting and resetting of bits. BSET sets the y-th bit of x to 1.

SEE ALSO: BCHG(), BCLR(), BTST()

107
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: BTST()
Syntax: <bool-result>=BTST(<num-expression-x>,<num-expression-y>)

DESCRIPTION:

BTST results in -1 (TRUE) if bit y of x is set.

SEE ALSO: BCHG(), BCLR(), BSET()

108
 5.3 B

Function: BWTD$()
Syntax: b$=BWTD$(a$)

DESCRIPTION:

BWTD$() performs the inverse Burrows-Wheeler transform on the string a$.

SEE ALSO: BWTE\$()

109
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: BWTE$()
Syntax: b$=BWTE$(a$)

DESCRIPTION:

BWTE$() performs a Burrows-Wheeler transform on the string a$.

The Burrows-Wheeler transform (BWT) is an algorithm used in data compression tech-
niques such as bzip2. It was invented by Michael Burrows and David Wheeler.
When a character string is transformed by the BWT, none of its characters change. It just
rearranges the order of the characters. If the original string had several substrings that occurred
often, then the transformed string will have several places where a single character is repeated
multiple times in a row. This is useful for compression, since it tends to be easy to compress
a string that has runs of repeated characters by techniques such as run-length encoding.

SEE ALSO: BWTD\$()

110
 5.3 B

Function: BYTE()
Syntax: <num>=BYTE(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns lower 8 bits of argument. (same as a=b AND 255)

SEE ALSO: CARD(), WORD(), SWAP()

111
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.4 C

112
 5.4 C

Command: CALL
Syntax: CALL <adr>[,<parameter-list>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Calls a machine code or C subroutine at address <adr> without return value. Optinal pa-
rameters are passed on the stack. (like in C). The default parameter-type is (4-Byte) integer. If
you want to specify other types, please use prefixes:
D: – double (8-Bytes) F: – float (4-Bytes) L: – long int

SEE ALSO: EXEC, EXEC()

EXAMPLE:
DIM result(100)
LINK #1,"simlib.so"
adr=SYM_ADR(#1,"Cal Beta")
CALL adr,D:1.2,L:0,L:VARPTR(result(0))
UNLINK #1

113
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: CARD()
Syntax: <num>=CARD(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns lower 16 bits of b. (same as a=b AND (2(HOCH)16-1))

SEE ALSO: BYTE(), WORD(), SWAP()

114
 5.4 C

Keyword: CASE
Syntax: SELECT ... CASE <num-expression> ... ENDSELECT

DESCRIPTION:

See SELECT.

SEE ALSO: SELECT, DEFAULT, ENDSELECT

115
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: CBRT()
Syntax: a=CBRT(x)

DESCRIPTION:

The CBRT() function returns the cube root of x. This function cannot fail; every repre-
sentable real value has a representable real cube root.

SEE ALSO: SQRT()

116
 5.4 C

Function: CEIL()
Syntax: <num-result>=CEIL(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Ceiling function: return smallest integral value not less than argument.

SEE ALSO: INT()

117
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: CHAIN
Syntax: CHAIN <file-name>

DESCRIPTION:

CHAIN loads and runs another BASIC program. Global variables will be available with
their current value to the new program, all other variables are erased. If you want to append
another program to the current program (as opposed to erasing the current program and loading
a new program), use the MERGE command instead.

SEE ALSO: MERGE, RUN

118
 5.4 C

Function: CHR$()
Syntax: <string-result> = CHR$(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

CHR$() returns the character associated with a given ASCII code.

Character table

032 048 0 064  080 P 096 ` 112 p

033 ! 049 1 065 A 081 Q 097 a 113 q
034 " 050 2 066 B 082 R 098 b 114 r
035 \# 051 3 067 C 083 S 099 115 s
036 \$ 052 4 068 D 084 T 100 d 116 t
037 \% 053 5 069 E 085 U 101 e 117 u
038 \& 054 6 070 F 086 V 102 f 118 v
039 ' 055 7 071 G 087 W 103 g 119 w
040 ( 056 8 072 H 088 X 104 h 120 x
041 ) 057 9 073 I 089 Y 105 i 121 y
042 * 058 : 074 J 090 Z 106 j 122 z
043 + 059 ; 075 K 091 \$[\$ 107 k 123 {
044 , 060 < 076 L 092 \ 108 l 124 |
045 - 061 = 077 M 093 \$℄\$ 109 m 125 }
046 . 062 > 078 N 094 (HOCH) 110 n 126 ~
047 / 063 ? 079 O 095 \_ 111 o 127

Control codes

00 NUL 08 BS -- Ba kspa e 16 DLE

01 SOH 09 HT -- horizontal TAB 17 DC1 -- XON
02 STX 10 LF -- Newline 18 DC2
03 ETX 11 VT 19 DC3 -- XOFF
04 EOT 12 FF -- Form feed 20 DC4
05 ENQ 13 CR -- Carriage Return 21 NAK
06 ACK 14 SO 22 SYN
07 BEL -- Bell 15 SI 23 ETB

24 CAN 32 SP -- Spa e
25 EM 127 DEL -- Delete
26 SUB

119
5 X11-Basic command reference

27 ESC28 FS
29 GS
30 RT
31 US

EXAMPLE:
PRINT CHR$(34);"Hello World !";CHR$(34)
Result: "Hello World !"

SEE ALSO: ASC()

120
 5.4 C

Function: CINT()
Syntax: <num-result>=CINT(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

CINT() returns the rounded absolute value of its argument prefixed with the sign of its
argument.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT CINT(1.4), CINT(-1.7)
Result: 2, -2

SEE ALSO: INT(), FRAC(), TRUNC(), ROUND()

121
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: CIRCLE
Syntax: CIRCLE <x>,<y>,<r>[,<w1>,<w2>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Draw a circle with actual color (and fillpattern). The x- and y-coordinates of the center and
the radius of the circle in screen coordinates. Optionally a starting angle <w1> and stop angle
<w2> can be passed to draw a circular arc.

EXAMPLE:
CIRCLE 100,100,50

SEE ALSO: ELLIPSE, COLOR, DEFFILL, PCIRCLE

122
 5.4 C

Command: CLEAR
Syntax: CLEAR

DESCRIPTION:

Clear all variables and arrays as if they were never used before.

SEE ALSO: NEW

123
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: CLEARW
Syntax: CLEARW [<num>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Clear graphic window. If a number is given, clear window with the number given. The
Window is filled with the backgound color given by the X-server.

SEE ALSO: CLOSEW

124
 5.4 C

Command: CLIP
Syntax: CLIP x,y,w,h[,ox,oy℄

DESCRIPTION:

This command provide the ’Clipping’ function, ie. the limiting of graphic display within a
specified rectangular screen area. The command CLIP x,y,w,h defines the clipping rectangle
starting at upper left coordinates x,y and extends w wide and h high. The optional additional
command parameters ox,oy make it possible to redefine the origin of the graphic display.

SEE ALSO:

125
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: CLOSE
Syntax: CLOSE [[#℄<num-expression>[,[#℄<num-expression>,...℄℄

DESCRIPTION:

This statement is used to CLOSE one or more OPEN files or other devices. The parameter
expression indicates a device number or file number. If no file or device numbers are declared
all OPEN devices will be closed.
COMMENT:
All files should be closed before leaving a program to insure that data will not be lost or
destroyed. If a program exit is through END or QUIT, all files will be closed. If a program is
stopped with the STOP command, alle open files remain open.

EXAMPLE:
CLOSE #1,#2
CLOSE

SEE ALSO: OPEN, LINK

126
 5.4 C

Command: CLOSEW
Syntax: CLOSEW [<num>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Close graphic window (make it disappear from the screen). If a number is given, closes
window with the number given. The Window will again be opened, when the next graphic
command is executed.

SEE ALSO: CLEARW

127
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: CLR
Syntax: CLR <var>[,<var>,...℄

DESCRIPTION:

Sets specified variables to 0 or "".

128
 5.4 C

Command: CLS
Syntax: CLS

DESCRIPTION:

Clear text screen and move cursor home (upper left corner).

SEE ALSO: PRINT

129
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: COLOR
Syntax: COLOR <foreground- olor>[,<ba kground- olor>℄

DESCRIPTION:

COLOR sets the foreground color (and optionally the background color) for graphic output
into the graphic window. The color values are dependant of the color depth of the Screen/X-
Server. Usually the COLOR statement is used together with the GET_COLOR() function, so
arbitrary colors may be used.

EXAMPLE:
yellow=GET_COLOR(65535,65535,0)
blue=GET_COLOR(0,0,65535)
COLOR yellow,blue

SEE ALSO: GET\_COLOR, LINE

130
 5.4 C

Function: COMBIN()
Syntax: <num-result>=COMBIN(<n>,<k>)

DESCRIPTION:

Calculates the number of combinations of <n> elements to the <k>th class without repeti-
tions. Defined as z=n!/((n-k)!*k!).

131
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: COMPRESS$()
Syntax: $=COMPRESS$(a$)

DESCRIPTION:

Performs a losless compression on the String a$. The algorithm uses run length encoding
in combination with the Burrows-Wheeler transform. The result is a better compression than
p.ex. the algorithm used by gzip. At the moment the COMPRESS$() function is identical to
following combination: b$=ARIE$(RLE$(MTFE$(BWTE$(RLE$(a$)))))

SEE ALSO: UNCOMPRESS\$(), BWTE\$(), RLE\$(), MTFE\$()

132
 5.4 C

Command: CONNECT
Syntax: CONNECT #n,server$,port%

DESCRIPTION:

Initiate a connection on a socket.

The file number #n must refer to a socket. If the socket is of type "U" then the server$
address is the address to which packets are sent by default, and the only address from which
packets are received. If the socket is of type "S","A","C", this call attempts to make a con-
nection to another socket. The other socket is specified by server$, which is an address in the
communications space of the socket.
Generally, connection-based protocol sockets may success fully connect only once; connec-
tionless protocol sockets may use connect multiple times to change their associa tion.

SEE ALSO: OPEN, CLOSE, SEND, RECEIVE

133
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: CONT
Syntax: CONT

DESCRIPTION:

Resumes execution of a program. Continue the execution of a program after interruption.

134
 5.4 C

Command: COPYAREA
Syntax: COPYAREA x,y,w,h,xd,yd

DESCRIPTION:

Copies a rectangular screen sections given by x,y,w,h to a destination at xd,yd.

x,y top left corner of source rectangle w,h width & height " " " xd,yd destination x and y
coordinates
This command is very fast compared to the GET and PUT commands because the whole
data transfer takes place on the X-client.

SEE ALSO: GET, PUT, GRAPHMODE

135
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: COS()
Syntax: <num-result>=COS(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the Cosine of the expression in radians.

SEE ALSO: SIN(), ASIN()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT COS(0) Result: 1

Function: COSH()
Syntax: <num-result>=COSH(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

The cosh() function returns the hyperbolic cosine of x, which is defined mathematically as
(exp(x)+exp(-x))/2

SEE ALSO: COS(), ACOSH()

Function: CRC()
Syntax: <num-result>=CRC(t$[,o ℄)

136
 5.4 C

DESCRIPTION:

Calculates a 32 bit checksum on the given String. If oc is passed, the checksum will be
updated with the given String.

SEE ALSO: LEN()

137
5 X11-Basic command reference

Variable: CRSCOL, CRSLIN

Syntax: CRSCOL
CRSLIN

DESCRIPTION:

Returns current cursor line and column.

SEE ALSO: PRINT AT()

138
 5.4 C

Variable: CTIMER
Syntax: CTIMER

DESCRIPTION:

Returns CPU-Clock in seconds. This timer returns the amount of time this application was
running. It is most usefull for benchmark applications on multi tasking environments.

SEE ALSO: TIMER, STIMER

139
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: CVA()
Syntax: <array-result>=CVA(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns array reconstructed from the string. This function is the compliment of MKA$().

EXAMPLE:
a()=CVA(t$)

SEE ALSO: ASC(), CVF(), CVL(), MKA\$()

140
 5.4 C

Function: CVD()
Syntax: <num-result>=CVD(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the binary double value of the first 8 characters of string. This function is the
compliment of MKD$().

SEE ALSO: ASC(), CVF(), CVL(), MKD\$()

Function: CVF()
Syntax: <num-result>=CVF(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the binary float value of the first 4 characters of string. This function is the compli-
ment of MKF$().

SEE ALSO: ASC(), CVD(), CVL(), MKF\$()

Function: CVI()
Syntax: <num-result>=CVI(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

141
5 X11-Basic command reference

Returns the binary integer value of the first 2 characters of string. This function is the
compliment of MKI$(). Null string returns 0, One character strings will return the ASCII
value.

SEE ALSO: ASC(), CVF(), CVL(), MKI\$()

Function: CVL()
Syntax: <num-result>=CVL(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the binary long integer value of the first 4 characters of string. This function is the
compliment of MKL$(). Null string returns 0.

SEE ALSO: ASC(), CVF(), CVI(), MKL\$()

Function: CVS()
Syntax: <num-result>=CVS(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the binary float value of the first 4 characters of string. This function is the compli-
ment of MKS$().

SEE ALSO: CVF(), MKS\$()

142
 5.5 D

5.5 D

143
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: DATA
Syntax: DATA [< onst>[,< onst>, ...℄℄

DESCRIPTION:

The DATA statement is used to hold information that may be read into variables using the
READ statement. DATA items are a list of string or numeric constants separated by commas
and may appear anywhere in a program. No comment statement may follow the DATA state-
ment on the same line. Items are read in the order they appear in a program. RESTORE will
set the pointer back to the beginning of the first DATA statement.
Alphanumeric string information in a DATA statement need not be enclosed in quotes if the
first character is not a number, math sign or decimal point. Leading spaces will be ignored
(unless in quotes). DATA statements can be included anywhere within a program and will be
read in order.

SEE ALSO: READ, RESTORE

144
 5.5 D

Variable: DATE$
Syntax: DATE$

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the system date. The format is DD.MM.YYYY.

SEE ALSO: TIME\$

145
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: DEC
Syntax: DEC <num-variable>

DESCRIPTION:

Decrement Variable a. The result is a=a-1.

SEE ALSO: INC

146
 5.5 D

Keyword: DEFAULT
Syntax: SELECT ... DEFAULT ... ENDSELECT

DESCRIPTION:

See SELECT.

SEE ALSO: SELECT

147
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: DEFFILL
Syntax: DEFFILL < ol>,<style>,<pattern>

DESCRIPTION:

Sets fill colour and pattern. <col> - not used at the moment <style> - 0=empty, 1=filled,
2=dots, 3=lines, 4=user (not used) <pattern> - 24 dotted patterns and 12 lined can by chosen.

SEE ALSO: DEFLINE, DEFTEXT

148
 5.5 D

Command: DEFFN
Syntax: DEFFN <fun tion-name>[$℄[(<variable list>)℄=<expression>

DESCRIPTION:

This statement allows the user to define a single line inline function that can thereafter be
called by FN name or @name. This is a handy way of adding functions not provided in the
language. The expression may be a numeric or string expression and must match the type the
function name would assume if it was a variable name. The name must adhere to variable
name syntax.

EXAMPLES:
DEFFN av(x,y)=SQR(x^2+y^2)
a=av(b, ) ! all av
DEFFN add$(a$,b$)=a$+b$

SEE ALSO: FUNCTION, GOSUB

149
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: DEFLINE
Syntax: DEFLINE <style>,<thi kness>[,<begin_s>,<end_s>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Sets line style, width and type of line start and end. <style> – determines the style of line:
1 Solid line 2 Long dashed line 3 Dotted 4 Dot-dashed 5 Dashed 6 Dash dot dot .. 7 User
defined (not used) <thickness> – sets line width in pixels. <begin_s>,<end_s> – The start and
end symbols are defined by the last parameter, and can be: 0 Square 1 Arrow 2 Round

SEE ALSO: LINE, DEFFILL

150
 5.5 D

Command: DEMARK
Syntax: DEMARK < olor>,<style>,<size>

DESCRIPTION:

Sets colour,type and size of the corner points to be marked using the command POLY-
MARK. The color value will be ignored. The color of the points can be set with the COLOR
command. The following typesare possible : 0=point 1=dot (circle) 2=plus sign 3=asterisk
4=square 5=cross 6=hash 8=filled circle 9=filled square

SEE ALSO: POLYMARK, DEFLINE, COLOR

151
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: DEMOUSE
Syntax: DEMOUSE <style>

DESCRIPTION:

Chooses a pre-defined mouse form. The following mouse forms are available :
0=arrow 1=expanded (rounded) X 2=busy bee 3=hand, pointing finger 4=open hand 5=thin
crosswire 6=thick crosswire 7=bordered crosswire and about 100 other X-Window specific
symbols.

SEE ALSO: HIDEM, SHOWM

152
 5.5 D

Command: DEFTEXT
Syntax: DEFTEXT < olour>,<attr>,<angle>,<height>,<width>

DESCRIPTION:

Defines the colour,style,rotation and size of text to be printed using the LTEXT command.
<colour> not used. <attr> text style - 0=normal 1=bold 2=light 4=italic 8=underlined
16=outlined (can be combined). <angle> rotation in degrees <width> and <height> size of
text in % (100% correspondt to 100 Pixel font)

SEE ALSO: LTEXT, TEXT

153
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: DEG()
Syntax: <num-expression>=DEG(<num-expression_x>)

DESCRIPTION:

Converts x from radians to degrees.

SEE ALSO: RAD()

154
 5.5 D

Command: DELAY
Syntax: DELAY <num-of-se onds>

DESCRIPTION:

Same as PAUSE. Delays program execution by <num-of-seconds> seconds.

SEE ALSO: PAUSE

155
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: DET()
Syntax: d=DET(a())

DESCRIPTION:

Calculates the determinant of a (square) matrix a().

SEE ALSO: SOLVE(), INV()

156
 5.5 D

Command: DIM
Syntax: DIM <arrayname>(<indi es>)[,<arrayname>(<indi es>),...℄

DESCRIPTION:

Sets the dimensions of an array or string array.

EXAMPLES:
DIM a(10)
DIM b(100,100)
DIM $(20,30,405,6)

SEE ALSO: ERASE, DIM?()

Function: DIM?()
Syntax: <num-result>=DIM?(<array-name>())

DESCRIPTION:

Determines the number of elements in an array. Note - arrays have an element ’0’.

EXAMPLE:
DIM a(10,10)
PRINT DIM?(A()) Result: 121

SEE ALSO: DIM

157
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: DIV
Syntax: DIV <num-var>,<num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Divides the value of var by n. As var=var/n but faster.

SEE ALSO: ADD, MUL, SUB

*

Function: DIV()
Syntax: <num-result>=DIV(<num-expression>,<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Divides the first value by second.

SEE ALSO: ADD(), MUL(), SUB()

158
 5.5 D

Command: DO
Syntax: DO ... LOOP

DESCRIPTION:

DO implements an unconditional loop. The lines between the DO line and the LOOP line
form the loop body. The unconditional DO...LOOP block simply loops and the only way out
is by EXIT IF or BREAK (or GOTO).

SEE ALSO: LOOP, EXIT IF, BREAK, WHILE

EXAMPLE:
DO
INPUT a$
EXIT IF a$=""
LOOP

159
5 X11-Basic command reference

Keyword: DOWNTO
Syntax: FOR ... DOWNTO ...

DESCRIPTION:

Used within a FOR..NEXT loop as a counter. Instead of using STEP -1, the command
DOWNTO is used, however STEP is not possible with DOWNTO. eg: FOR c=100 DOWNTO
1 is the same as FOR c=100 TO 1 STEP -1

SEE ALSO: FOR, TO, NEXT, STEP

160
 5.5 D

Function: DPEEK()
Syntax: <num-result>=DPEEK(<adr>)

DESCRIPTION:

Reads 2 bytes from address <adr> (a word).

SEE ALSO: PEEK(), LPEEK(), DPOKE

Command: DPOKE
Syntax: DPOKE <adr>,<num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Writes <num-expression> as a 2 byte word to address <adr>.

SEE ALSO: PEEK(), LPEEK(), POKE, DPEEK()

161
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: DRAW
Syntax: DRAW [<x1>,<y1>℄[TO <x2>,<y2>℄[TO <x3>,<y3>℄[TO ...℄

DESCRIPTION:

Draws points and connects two or more points with straight lines. DRAW x,y is the same
as PLOT x,y. DRAW TO x,y connects the point to the last set point (set by PLOT, LINE or
DRAW).

SEE ALSO: LINE, PLOT

162
 5.5 D

Command: DUMP
Syntax: DUMM [t$℄

DESCRIPTION:

Query Information about stored Variables, names:

DUMP – Lists all used variable names DUMP "@" – list of functions and procedures
DUMP ":" – list of all labels DUMP "#" – list of open Files DUMP "K" – list of X11-Basic
commands DUMP "F" – list of X11-Basic functions

SEE ALSO: LIST, PLIST, HELP

163
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.6 E

164
 5.6 E

Command: ECHO
Syntax: ECHO ON
ECHO OFF

DESCRIPTION:

Switches the trace function on or off. This causes each command to be listed on the stdout.

SEE ALSO: TRON, TROFF

165
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: EDIT
Syntax: EDIT

DESCRIPTION:

EDIT invokes the standart editor (given by the environment variable $(EDITOR) to edit the
BASIC program in memory. The command invokes the following actions:
- SAVE "name. " writes the BASIC-program into a temporary file, - calls the editor ’$ED-
ITOR’, waits until editor is closed - NEW clears internal values - LOAD "name. " reads the
BASIC-program from the temporary file.
You may want to SAVE the file before using the EDIT command if the file has not yet
been saved in order to choose a name at that occasion. The default name is "name. ". This
command requires that the editor installed on your system does not detach itself from the
calling process or EDIT will not recognize any changes (in that case, use LOAD to load the
modified source code).

SEE ALSO: LOAD, SAVE

166
 5.6 E

Command: ELLIPSE
Syntax: ELLIPSE <x>,<y>,<a>,<b> [,<w0>,<w1>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Draws an ellipse at <x>,<y>, having <a> as horizontal radius and <b> vertical radius The
optional angles <w0> and <w1> give start and end angles in degrees, to create an elliptical
arc.

SEE ALSO: PELLIPSE, CIRCLE

167
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ELSE, ELSE IF

Syntax: ELSE
ELSE IF <expression>

DESCRIPTION:

ELSE IF <expression> introduces another condition block and the unqualified ELSE in-
troduces the default condition block in a multi-line IF statement. SEE ALSO: IF,

ENDIF

EXAMPLE:
IF (N=0)
PRINT "0"
ELSE IF (N=1)
PRINT "1"
ELSE
PRINT "Out of range"
ENDIF

168
 5.6 E

Command: END
Syntax: END

DESCRIPTION:

END terminates program execution. The interpreter switches to interactive mode.

SEE ALSO: STOP, QUIT

169
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ENDFUNCTION
Syntax: ENDFUNCTION

DESCRIPTION:

Terminates a user defined function. The Program must return with a RETURN command.

SEE ALSO: FUNCTION, RETURN

170
 5.6 E

Command: ENDIF
Syntax: ENDIF

DESCRIPTION:

ENDIF terminates a multi-line IF block.

SEE ALSO: IF, ELSE, ELSE IF

171
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ENDSELECT
Syntax: ENDSELECT

DESCRIPTION:

Terminates a SELECT block.

SEE ALSO: SELECT, DEFAULT, CASE

172
 5.6 E

Command: ENV$()
Syntax: <string-result>=ENV$(<env-variable>)

DESCRIPTION:

ENV$() returns the current value of the specified "environment variable". Environment
variables are string variables maintained by the operating system. These variables typically
are used to save configuration information. Use the SETENV command to set the values of
environment variables.

SEE ALSO: SETENV

EXAMPLE:
PRINT ENV$("USER")
Result: hoffmann

173
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: EOF()
Syntax: <boolean-result>=EOF(#<dev-number>)

DESCRIPTION:

EOF() checks the end-of-file status of a file previously opened for reading by the OPEN
command. It returns -1 (TRUE) if the end of file has been reached, otherwise null (FALSE).

SEE ALSO: OPEN

EXAMPLE:
OPEN "I",#1,"filename"
WHILE NOT EOF(#1)
LINEINPUT #1,a$
WEND
CLOSE #1

174
 5.6 E

Operator: EQV
Syntax: <num-result>=<num-expression> EQV <num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

The operator EQV (equivalence) produces a TRUE result only if the arguments of both are
either TRUE or both FALSE. (same as NOT(x XOR y)) and ((A IMP B) AND (B IMP A)).
table: A | B | A EQV B —–+—–+———– -1 | -1 | -1 -1 | 0 | 0 0 | -1 | 0 0 | 0 | -1

SEE ALSO: TRUE, FALSE, NOT, XOR, IMP

Function: EQV()
Syntax: <num-result>=EQV(<num-expression>,<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Binary Function of logical operator EQV.

SEE ALSO: EQV

EXAMPLE:
PRINT BIN$(EQV(15,6),4)
Result: 0110

175
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ERASE
Syntax: ERASE <array>()[,<array>(),...℄

DESCRIPTION:

Deletes an array and releases the dimensioned area.

SEE ALSO: DIM

176
 5.6 E

Variable: ERR
Syntax: ERR

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the error code of latest occurred error.

SEE ALSO: ERROR, ERR\$()

177
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: ERR$()
Syntax: <string-result>=ERR$(<error-nr)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns, as a string containing the X11-Basic error mesage which belongs to the error num-
ber.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT "X11-Basi Error messages:"
FOR i=0 TO 255
PRINT i,ERR$(i)
NEXT i

SEE ALSO: ERR

178
 5.6 E

Command: ERROR
Syntax: ERROR <error-number>

DESCRIPTION:

ERROR simulates an error, i.e., displays the message appropriate for a given error code or
calls the error handler if one was installed via the ON ERROR command. This command is
helpful in writing ON ERROR GOSUB routines that can identify errors for special treatment
and then ERROR ERR (i.e. default handling) for all others.

EXAMPLE:
> ERROR 245
Line -1: * Timeout

SEE ALSO: ON ERROR GOSUB, ERR

179
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: EVAL
Syntax: EVAL a$

DESCRIPTION:

Evaluate or execute X11-Basic command, which is in a$.

EXAMPLE:
b$="a=5"
a$="print a"
EVAL a$
EVAL b$
EVAL a$

SEE ALSO: EVAL(), &

180
 5.6 E

Function: EVAL()
Syntax: a=EVAL(b$)

DESCRIPTION:

Evaluate expression, which is in b$.

EXAMPLE:
b$="sin(0.5*exp(0.001))"
result=EVAL(b$)

SEE ALSO: EVAL, &

181
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: EVEN()
Syntax: <bool-result>=EVEN(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns true (-1) if the number is even, else false (0).

SEE ALSO: ODD()

182
 5.6 E

Command: EVENT
Syntax: EVENT typ,[x,y,xroot,yroot,s,k,ks,t$℄

DESCRIPTION:

Waits until any of the KEYEVENT, MOUSEEVENT, MOTIONEVENT occurs.

typ determines whichof the events have occured:
typ=6 — motionevent typ=14 — MOUSEEVENT typ=2 — keyevent
x,y — Mouse position relative to window xroot,yroot — Mouse position relative to screen
s — State of the Alt, Caps, Shift keys t$ — Character of pressed key

SEE ALSO: KEYEVENT, MOUSEEVENT, MOTIONEVENT

183
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: EVERY
Syntax: EVERY <se onds> GOSUB <pro edure>
EVERY CONT
EVERY STOP

DESCRIPTION:

The command EVERY causes the procedure to be called every <seconds> seconds. Using
EVERY STOP, the calling of a procedure can be prevented. With EVERY CONT this is again
allowed.

SEE ALSO: AFTER

184
 5.6 E

Command: EXEC
Syntax: EXEC <adr>[,<parameter-list>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Calls a machine code or C subroutine at address <adr> without return value. Optinal pa-
rameters are passed on the stack. (like in C). The default parameter-type is (4-Byte) integer. If
you want to specify other types, please use prefixes:
D: – double (8-Bytes) F: – float (4-Bytes) L: – long int

SEE ALSO: CALL, EXEC()

Function: EXEC()
Syntax: <int-return>=EXEC(<adr>[,<parameter-list>℄)

DESCRIPTION:

Calls a machine code or C subroutine at address <adr> and returns an integer value. Optinal
parameters are passed on the stack. (like in C). The default parameter-type is (4-Byte) integer.
If you want to specify other types, please use prefixes:
D: – double (8-Bytes) F: – float (4-Bytes) L: – long int

SEE ALSO: CALL, EXEC

185
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: EXIST()
Syntax: <bool-result>=EXIST(<filename>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns TRUE (-1) if the file is present on a file system.

186
 5.6 E

Command: EXIT IF
Syntax: EXIT IF <expression>

DESCRIPTION:

The innermost loop will be exited if the expression is true. WHILE, REPEAT, DO and
FOR loops can be aborted prematurely with the EXIT command. EXIT leaves the current
(innermost) loop immediately. EXIT IF leaves the current loop only if the expression after
EXIT IF is not FALSE (not null).

SEE ALSO: DO, WHILE, FOR, REPEAT, BREAK, IF

187
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: EXP()
Syntax: <num-result> = EXP(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

EXP() returns the exponential value of its argument (e to the specified power).

SEE ALSO: Operator ^

EXAMPLE:
PRINT EXP(1)
Result: 2.718281828459

188
 5.6 E

Function: EXPM1()
Syntax: <num-result> = EXPM1(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns a value equivalent to ‘exp(x)-1’. It is computed in a way that is accurate even if the
value of x is near zero–a case where ‘exp(x)-1’ would be inaccurate due to subtraction of two
numbers that are nearly equal.

SEE ALSO: LOG1P(), EXP()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT EXPM1(1)
Result: 1.718281828459

189
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.7 F

190
 5.7 F

Function: FACT()
Syntax: <num-result>=FACT(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Calculates the factorial (n!)

191
5 X11-Basic command reference

Variable: FALSE
Syntax: FALSE

DESCRIPTION:

Constant 0. This is simply another way of expressing the value of a condition when it is
false and is equal to zero.

SEE ALSO: TRUE

192
 5.7 F

Command: FFT
Syntax: FFT a(),

DESCRIPTION:

FFT a(),i $[$,...$]$ – Fouriertransformation. i=-1 Rücktransformation Dim?(a()) muss Zweier-

potenz sein. SEE ALSO:

193
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: FILESELECT
Syntax: FILESELECT <title$>,<path$>,<default$>,<string-variable>

DESCRIPTION:

Opens a fileselect box. <title$> gives a short title to be placed in the fileselect box. Such as
’Select a .DOC file to open...’.
<path$> path - if none specified then the default path is assumed. The pathname should
include a complete path specification including a drive letter (except for UNIX file system),
colon, path, and filemask. The filemask may (and usually does include wildcard characters).
<default$> contains the name of the file to apppear in the selection line. ("" for no default).
FILESELECT returns the selected filename (including path) in <string-variable>. If CAN-
CEL is selected an empty string is returned.

SEE ALSO: XLOAD, XRUN, FSEL\_INPUT()

EXAMPLE:
FILESELECT "LOAD File",".\*.dat","input.dat",file$

194
 5.7 F

Command: FILL
Syntax: FILL x,y[,b ℄

DESCRIPTION:

Fills a bordered area with a color commencing at the co-ordinates ’x,y’. If a border color
(bc) is specified, the fill stops at boundaries with this color. If no border color is given, the fill
will stop at any oter color than the one of the starting coordinate. The fill color can be chosen
with the command COLOR.

SEE ALSO: COLOR

195
5 X11-Basic command reference

FIT a(),a(),???,???$[$,???,???,???,???,???,???$]$ FIT_LINEAR x(),y()$[$,$[$xerr(),$]$yerr()$]$,n,a,b

– Lineare Regression optional mit Fehlerbalken in beide Richtungen. n=Anzahl der Fitpunkte,
f(x)=a+b*x

196
 5.7 F

Function: FIX()
Syntax: <num-result>=FIX(<num-expression-x>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the integer of x after it has been rounded. Same as INT(x) for positive numbers
but for negative numbers INT(-1.99)=-2 AND FIX(-1.99)=1. FIX is identical to the function
TRUNC and complements FRAC.

SEE ALSO: INT(), TRUNC(), FRAC(), ROUND()

197
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: FLOOR()
Syntax: <num-result>=FLOOR(<num-expression-x>)

DESCRIPTION:

Round x down to the nearest integer.

SEE ALSO: INT(), FIX()

198
 5.7 F

Command: FLUSH
Syntax: FLUSH [#<devi e-name>℄

DESCRIPTION:

Flushes the output to the file or console. Usually a Line is printed when the newline charac-
ter is encountered. To enforce output of everything which has been printed so far use FLUSH.

SEE ALSO: PRINT

199
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: FOR
Syntax: FOR <variable> = <start-expression> TO <target-expression> [STEP <in r
FOR <variable> = <start-expression> DOWNTO <target-expression> [STEP <

DESCRIPTION:

FOR initiates a FOR...NEXT loop with the specified <variable> initially set to <start-
expression> and incrementing in <increment> steps (default is 1). The statements between
FOR and NEXT are repeated until the variable value reaches or steps over <target-expression>.

SEE ALSO: NEXT

EXAMPLE:
FOR n=2 TO 0 STEP -1
PRINT n,
NEXT n
RESULT: 2 1 0

200
 5.7 F

Function: FORK()
Syntax: <int-result>=FORK()

DESCRIPTION:

FORK() creates a child process of the running task (usually the X11-Basic interpreter with
the Basic program) that differs from the parent process only in its PID and PPID, and in the
fact that resource utilizations are set to 0.
On success, the PID of the child process is returned in the parent’s thread of execution,
and a 0 is returned in the child’s thread of execution. On failure, a -1 will be returned in the
parent’s context, no child process will be created.

EXAMPLE:
a=FORK()
IF a=-1
PRINT "error"
QUIT
ELSE IF a=0
PRINT "I am hild"
ELSE
PRINT "I am parent. My hild is PID=";a
ENDIF

201
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: FORM_ALERT()
Syntax: <num-result>=FORM_ALERT(<default-button>,<string$>)

DESCRIPTION:

Creates an alert box. button = number of the default button (0= none). string$ = string defin-
ing the message in the alert. Note that the square brackets are part of the string: $[$i$]$$[$Message$]$$[$
where i = the required alert symbol - see ALERT. FORM_ALERT returns the number of the
selected Button.

SEE ALSO: ALERT

EXAMPLE:
~FORM_ALERT(1,"[0℄[This is my message!℄[OK℄")

202
 5.7 F

Function: FORM_CENTER()
Syntax: <num-result>=FORM_CENTER(tree,x,y,w,h)

DESCRIPTION:

Centers the tree, and returns its coordinates. INPUT: tree - address of the object tree. OUT-
PUTS: x,y coordinates of top left corner w,h form width and height. returns a reserved value.

203
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: FORM_DIAL()
Syntax: <num-result>=FORM_DIAL(flag,x1,y1,w1,h1,x2,y2,w2,h2)

DESCRIPTION:

Release (or reserve) a rectangular screen area and draw an expanding/shrinking rectangle.
Returns 0 if an error occured. flag function 0 reserve a display area. 1 draw expanding box. 2
draw shrinking box. 3 release reserved display area. x1,y1 top left corner of rectangle at min
size w1,h1 width & height " " " " " x2,y2 top left corner of rectangle at max size w2,h2 width
& height " " " " "

204
 5.7 F

Function: FORM_DO()
Syntax: <num-result>=FORM_DO(tree,obj)

DESCRIPTION:

Manages an Object tree, interacts with the user until an object with EXIT or TOUCH EXIT
status is clicked on. Returns the number of the object whose clicking or double clicking caused
the function to end. If it was a double click, bit 15 will be set. tree = address of the object tree.
obj = Number of the first editable field (if there is one).

205
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: FRAC()
Syntax: <num-result> = FRAC(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

FRAC() returns the fractional part of its argument.

SEE ALSO: INT(), CINT(), TRUNC(), ROUND()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT FRAC(-1.234)
Result: -0.234

206
 5.7 F

Command: FREE
Syntax: FREE <adr>

DESCRIPTION:

Frees a previously allocated Memory block.

SEE ALSO: MALLOC()

207
5 X11-Basic command reference

a=FREEFILE() – Returns first free filenumber or -1 on error.

208
 5.7 F

Command: FULLW
Syntax: FULLW [[#℄n℄

DESCRIPTION:

Enlarges window ’n’ to full screen size. ’n’ is the window number.

SEE ALSO: OPENW, CLOSEW, MOVEW, SIZEW, TOPW, BOTTOMW

209
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: FUNCTION
Syntax: FUNCTION <name>[$℄[(<expression> [, ...℄)℄

DESCRIPTION:

FUNCTION starts a user-defined multi-line function that calculates and returns a value
from an optional list of parameters. The FUNCTION is called by using the function name
preceeded by a @ in an expression. The function return type can either be a numerical value
or a string. In the latter case, the function name must end with the "$" precision qualifier. A
FUNCTION returns a result with the RETURN command inside the function. In a function,
RETURN can be used several times, with IF or the like. A function cannot be terminated
without a RETURN command being before the ENDFUNC command. In a function name
ending with the $ character the function returns a string result.
All variables declared inside the FUNCTION block are global variables unless you declare
them as local with the LOCAL command. The FUNCTION name may be followed by a
list of parameter variables representing the values and variables in the calling line. Variables
in the calling line reach the FUNCTION "by-value" unless the VAR keyword is used in the
calling line. In that case, the variable is passed "by-reference" to the FUNCTION so that
the FUNCTION "gets" the variable and not only its value. Variables passed "by-reference"
can be changed by the FUNCTION. The FUNCTION block is terminated by an ENDFUNC-
TION statement which resumes execution of the calling expression. Unlike a PROCEDURE-
subroutine, a FUNCTION must return a value.

SEE ALSO: ENDFUNCTION, RETURN, DEFFN, LOCAL, PROCEDURE

EXAMPLE:
FUNCTION theta(x,a)
if x>a
RETURN 0
else
RETURN a
endif
ENDFUNCTION

210
 5.8 G

5.8 G

211
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: GASDEV()
Syntax: <num-result>=GASDEV(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns a random number which is gauss distributed. The numbers range from minus infin-
ity to infinity but values around 0 are much more likely. The argument is taken as a seed for
the random generator.

SEE ALSO: RND()

212
 5.8 G

Command: GET
Syntax : GET <x1>,<y1>,<x2>,<y2>,<var$>
DESCRIPTION:

GET puts a section of the graphic window into a string variable (x1,y1 and x2,y2 are coor-
dinates of diagonally opposite corners).

SEE ALSO: PUT

213
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: GET_COLOR()
Syntax: <num-result>=GET_COLOR(<red-value>,<green-value>,<blue-value)

DESCRIPTION:

GET_COLOR() returns acolor number for the specified color. The rgb-values range from 0
(dark) to 65535 (bright). The returned number depends on the screen depth of the X-Server.
For 8 bit a color cell is allocated or if there is no free cell, a color is chosen which is most
similar to the specified. The color numbers may be passed to the COLOR command.

EXAMPLE:
yellow=GET_COLOR(65535,65535,0)
COLOR yellow

SEE ALSO: COLOR

214
 5.8 G

Function: GLOB()
Syntax: <bool>=GLOB(name$,pattern$[,flags℄)

DESCRIPTION:

GLOB() checks if name$ matches the wildcard pattern pattern$ and gives -1 (TRUE), else
0 (FALSE). The kind of check can be secified with the flags parameter.
flags 0 – default, no extras 1 – name$ is treated as a filename (Chars ’/’ are not matched) 2
– Backslashes quote special characters 4 – special treatment of ’.’ 8 – just check path of file
name name$ 16 – case insensitive

EXAMPLES:
glob("ab d","ab ?") Result: -1
glob("ab d","*") -1
glob("ab ","ab??") 0
glob("*a[0-9℄*","sad33333") 0

SEE ALSO: INSTR(), WORT\_SEP

215
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: GOSUB ABBREV. 

Syntax: GOSUB <preo edure-name>[(<parameterlist>)℄

DESCRIPTION:

GOSUB initiates a jump to the preocedure specified after GOSUB. The code reached that
way must end with a RETURN statement which returns control to the calling line.
A procedure name can begin with a digit and contain letters, numbers, dots and the underline
dash. <parameterlist> contains expressions which are passed by value to local variables to the
procedure. It is possible to call further procedures whilst in a procedure. It is even possible to
call the procedure one is in at the time (recursive call).

EXAMPLES:
GOSUB testpro
 al va (12,s,4,t$)

SEE ALSO: PROCEDURE, RETURN, SPAWN, GOTO, EVERY, AFTER

216
 5.8 G

Command: GOTO
Syntax: GOTO <label-name>

DESCRIPTION:

Allows an unconditional jump to a label. A label must be defined at the beginning of a line
and must end in a colon.

EXAMPLE:
GOTO here
PRINT "never"
here:
PRINT "ever"

SEE ALSO: GOSUB

217
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: GPRINT
Syntax: GPRINT [[AT(),TAB(),SPC()℄a$b|const|USING|...;’,]|

DESCRIPTION:

The GPRINT-statement writes all its arguments to the graphic window. It uses the same
sytax as PRINT. Unlike PRINT thoe output goes to the graphic window.

SEE ALSO: PRINT, TEXT

218
 5.8 G

Command: GRAPHMODE
Syntax: GRAPHMODE <n>

DESCRIPTION:

Sets the graphic mode:

<n>=0 default <n>=1 replace <n>=2 transparent <n>=3 xor <n>=4 reverse transparent

219
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: GRAY()
Syntax: <num-result>=GRAY(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

This function calculates the Gray-code of a given positive integer number. If the number is
negative, the inverse Graycode is calculated.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT GRAY(34)
Result: 51

220
 5.9 H

5.9 H

221
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: HELP
Syntax: HELP <string-pattern>

DESCRIPTION:

Gives information of built in commands and functions.

EXAMPLE:
HELP CL*
Result:
CLEAR [,...℄
CLEARW [,i%℄
CLOSE [,...℄
CLOSEW [,i%℄
CLR [,...℄
CLS

222
 5.9 H

Function: HEX$()
Syntax: <string-result>=HEX$(<x>[,<n>℄)

DESCRIPTION:

Changes the value of <x> into a string expression which contains the value in hexadecimal
form. The optional parameter <n> specifies the number of characters to be used.

SEE ALSO: STR\$(), BIN\$()

223
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: HIDEM
Syntax: HIDEM

DESCRIPTION:

Switches off the mouse pointer.

SEE ALSO: SHOWM, DEFMOUSE

224
 5.9 H

Command: HOME
Syntax: HOME

DESCRIPTION:

moves text cursor home. (upper left corner)

SEE ALSO: PRINT AT()

225
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: HTAB
Syntax: HTAB <num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Positions the text cursor to the specified column.

SEE ALSO: PRINT AT(), VTAB

226
 5.9 H

Function: HYPOT()
Syntax: <num-result>=HYPOT(<num-expression:x>,<num-expression:y>)

DESCRIPTION:

The hypot() function returns the sqrt(x*x+y*y). This is the length of the hypotenuse of a
right-angle triangle with sides of length x and y, or the distance of the point (x,y) from the
origin.

SEE ALSO: SQRT()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT HYPOT(3,4) Result: 5

227
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.10 I

228
 5.10 I

Command: IF
Syntax: IF < ondition> [... ELSE [IF <expression> ...℄ ... ENDIF

DESCRIPTION:

Divides a program up into different blocks depending on how it relates to the ’condition’.

SEE ALSO: ELSE, ENDIF

229
5 X11-Basic command reference

Operator: IMP
Syntax: <num-result>=<num-expression> IMP <num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

The operator IMP (implication) corresponds to a logical consequence. The result is FALSE
if a FALSE expression follows a TRUE one. The sequence of the argument is important.
Table: A | B | A IMP B —–+—–+———– -1 | -1 | -1 -1 | 0 | 0 0 | -1 | -1 0 | 0 | -1

SEE ALSO: TRUE, FALSE, NOT, XOR, EQV

Function: IMP()
Syntax: <num-result>=IMP(<num-expression>,<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Binary Function of logical operator IMP.

SEE ALSO: IMP

EXAMPLE:
PRINT BIN$(IMP(13,14),4)
Result: 1110

230
 5.10 I

Command: INC
Syntax: INC <num-variable>

DESCRIPTION:

INC increments a (numeric) variable. This command is considerably faster then the equiv-
alent statement "<variable> = <variable> + 1".

SEE ALSO: ADD, DEC

231
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: INFOW
Syntax: INFOW [<window-nr>℄,<string-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Links the (new) information string to the window with the number. On UNIX this Informa-
tion will be displayed in ICONIFIED state of the window.

SEE ALSO: TITLEW

232
 5.10 I

Variable: INKEY$
Syntax: <string-result>=INKEY$

DESCRIPTION:

Returns a string containing the ASCII characters of all keys which have been pressed on the
keyboard.

EXAMPLE:
REPEAT ! Wait until a
UNTIL LEN(INKEY$) ! Key was pressed

SEE ALSO: INP(), KEYEVENT

233
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: INLINE$()
Syntax: <string-result>=INLINE$(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

7Bit-ASCII to Binary conversion. This command basically does a RADIX conversion (from
64 to 256) on the contents of the string. This is intended to be used to include binary data into
the source code of a basic program.
The inverse coding (from binary to 7 bit ASCII) is done by the program inline.bas which
comes with X11-Basic.

EXAMPLE:
sym$=INLINE$("$$$$$$$$0$&T _>$QL&ZD3 K℄UD<*%D$$$$$$$$$") ! Train
PUT_BITMAP sym$,92,92,16,16

SEE ALSO: PUT\_BITMAP

234
 5.10 I

Function: INP(), INP\%(), INP\&()

Syntax: <num-result>=INP(< hannel-nr>)
<num-result>=INP\&(< hannel-nr>)
<num-result>=INP\%(< hannel-nr>)

DESCRIPTION:

Reads one byte from a file previously opened with OPEN (nr>0) or from the standart files
(-1=stderr, -2=stdin, -4=stdout). INP&() reads a word (2 Bytes) and INP%() reads a long word
(4 bytes).

EXAMPLE:
~INP(-2) ! Waits for a key beeing pressed
PRINT INP%(#1) ! reads a long from a previously opened file

SEE ALSO: OUT, INPUT\$()

235
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: INP?()
Syntax: <bool-result>=INP?(< hannel-nr>)

DESCRIPTION:

Determine the input status of the device. TRUE(-1) is device is ready (chars can be read)
ortherwise FALSE(0).

SEE ALSO: INP()

236
 5.10 I

Function: INV()
Syntax: b()=INV(a())

DESCRIPTION:

Calculate the inverse of a square matrix a(). The calculation is done using the singular value
decomposition. If the matrix is singular the algorithm tells you how many singular values are
zero or close to zero.

SEE ALSO: SOLVE(), DET()

237
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: INPUT
Syntax: INPUT [#<devi e-number>℄<prompt-expression>], <variable> [, ...]|

DESCRIPTION:

INPUT gets comma-delimited input from the standart input or from a previously opened file
as specified by <device-number> (use the LINE INPUT function do read complete lines from
a file and BLOAD to load complete files). Any input is assigned to the variable(s) specified. If
input is expected from a console window, then <prompt-expression> is printed to the console
window to request input from the user.

SEE ALSO: LINEINPUT, FORM INPUT AS, PRINT

EXAMPLE:
INPUT #1,a$
INPUT "Enter your name:",a$

238
 5.10 I

Function: INPUT$()
Syntax: <string-result>=INPUT$(#<nr>,<len>)
<string-result>=INPUT$(<len>)

DESCRIPTION:

Reads <len> characters from the keyboard and assigns them to a string. Optionally, if the
device-number is specified, the characters are read in from a previously OPENed channel
<nr>.

SEE ALSO: INPUT, INP()

239
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: INSTR()
Syntax: <num-result>=INSTR(<a$>,<b$>[,<n>℄)

DESCRIPTION:

Searches to see if b$ is present in a$ and returns its position. <n> is a numeric expression
indicating the position in a$ at which the search is to begin (default=1). If <n> is not given
the search begins at the first character of a$. If b$ is found in a$ the start position is returned,
otherwise 0.

SEE ALSO: RINSTR(), GLOB()

240
 5.10 I

Function: INT()
Syntax: <num-result> = INT(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

INT() returns the largest integer number smaller than or equal to its argument.

SEE ALSO: CINT(), FRAC(), TRUNC(), ROUND()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT INT(1.4), INT(-1.7)
Result: 1, -2

241
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: IOCTL()
Syntax: <num-result> = IOCTL(#n,d%[,adr%℄)

DESCRIPTION:

IOCTL() manipulates the underlying device parameters of special files. In particular, many
operating characteristics of character special files (e.g. terminals) may be controlled with ioctl
requests. The argument #n must refer to an open file.
The second argument is a device-dependent request code. The third argument is an untyped
pointer to memory.
An ioctl request has encoded in it whether the argument is an in param- eter or out parameter,
and the size of the argument adr% refers to in bytes.
Usually, on success zero is returned. A few ioctls use the return value as an output pa-
rameter and return a nonnegative value on success. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set
appropriately.

SEE ALSO: OPEN, CLOSE

EXAMPLE:
OPEN "U",#1,"/dev/ onsole"
frequen y=300
tone=1190000/frequen y
KIOCSOUND=19247
PRINT io tl(#1,KIOCSOUND,tone) ! Sounds the speaker
CLOSE #1
Result: 0

242
 5.11 J

5.11 J

243
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: JULDATE$()
Syntax: d$=juldate$(a)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the date as string (see DATE$) given by the julian day number a.

SEE ALSO: JULIAN(), DATE\$

244
 5.11 J

Function: JULIAN()
Syntax: a=JULIAN(date$)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the julian date corresponding to the date given as a string in standart format. The
number which is returned is an integer number and has the unit days.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT "Number of days sin e Sept. 11 2001: ";julian(date$)-julian("11.09.2001")

SEE ALSO: JULDATE\$(), DATE\$

245
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.12 K

246
 5.12 K

Command: KEYEVENT
Syntax: KEYEVENT k ,ks[,t$,k,x,y,xroot,yroot℄

DESCRIPTION:

Waits until Key is pressed. (graphic window) After the key event has occured, the variables
have following meaning:
kc – Key-code ks – state of Shift/Control/Alt etc. t$ – correspondig character x – x coor-
dinate of mouse pointer relative to window y – y coordinate xroot – x coordinate of mouse
pointer relative to screen yroot – y coordinate k – mouse button state

SEE ALSO: MOUSEEVENT

247
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.13 L

248
 5.13 L

Function: LEFT$()
Syntax: <string-result> = LEFT$(<string-expression> [,< hara ters>℄)

DESCRIPTION:

LEFT$() returns the specified number of characters from its argument, beginning at its left
side. If the number of <characters> is not specified then LEFT$() returns only the leftmost
character.

SEE ALSO: RIGHT\$(), MID\$()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT LEFT$("Hello",1)
Result: H

249
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: LEN()
Syntax: l=LEN(t$)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the length of a string.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT LEN("Hello")
Result: 5

250
 5.13 L

Command: LET
Syntax: LET <variable> = <expression>

DESCRIPTION:

LET assigns the value of <expression> to <variable>. The interpreter also supports implicit
assignments, ie. the LET keyword before an assignment may be omitted. This works because
the first equal sign is regarded as assignment operator.

EXAMPLE:
LET N=1

251
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: LINE
Syntax: LINE <x1>,<y1>,<x2>,<y2>

DESCRIPTION:

Draws a straight line from (x1,y1) to (x2,y2).

SEE ALSO: DRAW, PLOT

252
 5.13 L

Command: LINEINPUT
Syntax: LINEINPUT [[#℄<devi e-number>,℄ <string-variable>

DESCRIPTION:

LINE INPUT reads an entire line from atandart input or from a previously opened file
as specified by <device-number> (to load a complete file, use BLOAD). Unlike the regular
INPUT command, LINEINPUT does not stop at delimiters (commas).

SEE ALSO: INPUT

253
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: LINK
Syntax: LINK #<devi e-nr>,<string-expression:name>

DESCRIPTION:

LINK linkes a shared object file/library (*.so in /var/lib) dynamically. It will from now on
be addressed via the device-nr.
The adresses of he symbols of that library can be read with the SYM_ADR() function.
If the Library is not used any more it can be unlinked with the UNLINK command.

SEE ALSO: UNLINK, SYM\_ADR(), CALL

254
 5.13 L

Command: LIST
Syntax: LIST [<line-number>[,<line-number>℄

DESCRIPTION:

LIST displays the source code or a code segment. Note that the line number of the first line
in a file is 1, that the second line is line 2 etc.

SEE ALSO: LLIST, PLIST, PRG\$()

EXAMPLE:
LIST
LIST 1-10
LIST 5

255
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: LOAD
Syntax: LOAD <string-expression:name>

DESCRIPTION:

Loads a program into memory.

SEE ALSO: XLOAD, MERGE, CHAIN

EXAMPLE:
LOAD "testme.bas"

256
 5.13 L

Function: LOC()
Syntax: <int-result>=LOC(#<devi e-nre>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the location of the file pointer for the file with the device number. The location is
given in number of bytes from the start of the file.

SEE ALSO: LOF()

257
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: LOCAL
Syntax: LOCAL <var>[,<var>,...℄

DESCRIPTION:

Declares several variables to be a local variable.

EXAMPLE:
LOCAL a,b$,s()

258
 5.13 L

Command: LOCATE
Syntax: LOCATE <row>,< olumn>

DESCRIPTION:

Positions the cursor to the specified location.

SEE ALSO: PRINT AT(), CRSLIN, CRSCOL

259
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: LOF()
Syntax: <int-result>=LOF(#<devi e-nre>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns length of file with device number.

SEE ALSO: LOC()

260
 5.13 L

Function: LOG(), LOG10(), LN()

Syntax: <num-result>=LOG(<num-expression>)
<num-result>=LOG10(<num-expression>)
<num-result>=LN(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the natural logarithm (log, ln) or the logarithm base 10 (log10).

SEE ALSO: EXP()

261
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: LOGB()
Syntax: <int-result>=LOGB(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the logarithm base 2 in interger values.

SEE ALSO: LOG()

262
 5.13 L

Function: LOG1P()
Syntax: <num-result>=LOG1P(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns a value equivalent to log(1+x). It is computed in a way that is accurate even if the
value of x is near zero.

SEE ALSO: LOG(), EXP(), LN()

263
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: LOOP
Syntax: LOOP

DESCRIPTION:

LOOP terminates a DO loop and can be used as unqualified loop terminator (such a loop
can only be aborted with the EXIT command). Execution continues with the DO line.

SEE ALSO: DO, EXIT IF, BREAK

264
 5.13 L

Function: LPEEK()
Syntax: <int-result>=LPEEK(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Reads a 4 byte integer from address.

SEE ALSO: PEEK(), POKE

265
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: LPOKE
Syntax: LPOKE <adr>,<num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Writes a 4 byte integer to address <adr>.

SEE ALSO: DPOKE, POKE, PEEK()

266
 5.13 L

LSET t$=a$

267
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: LTEXT
Syntax: LTEXT x,y,t$

DESCRIPTION:

Draws a Text at position x,y. The LTEXT command uses a Linegraphic-Text, which allows
the user to draw very large Fonts and be independant of the system fonts. The Font Style can
be influenced with the DEFLINE and the DEFTEXT command.

SEE ALSO: DEFTEXT, TEXT, DEFLINE

268
 5.14 M

5.14 M

269
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: MALLOC()
Syntax: <int-result:adr>=MALLOC(<num-expression:size>)

DESCRIPTION:

Allocates size bytes and returns a pointer to the allocated memory. The memory is not
cleared.

SEE ALSO: FREE(), MFREE(), REALLOC()

270
 5.14 M

Function: MAX()
Syntax: m=MAX(a,b[, ,...℄)
m=MAX(f())

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the largest value out of the list of arguments or the largest value of an array.

SEE ALSO: MIN()

271
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: MENU
Syntax: MENU

DESCRIPTION:

Performs menu check and action. This command handles EVENTs. Prior to use, the re-
quired action should be specified with a MENUDEF command. For constant supervision of
events, MENU is usually found in a loop.

EXAMPLE:
MENUDEF field$(),menua tion
DO
pause 0.05
MENU
LOOP
PROCEDURE menua tion(k)
...
RETURN

SEE ALSO: MENUDEF

272
 5.14 M

Command: MENUDEF
Syntax: MENUDEF array$(),<pro name>

DESCRIPTION:

This command reads text for menu-header from array\$() the string-array contains the
text for menu-titles and menu-entrys
- end of row: empty string "" - end of menu-text: empty string ""
<pro name> The procedure to which control will be passed on selection of a menu entry is
determined.
<pro name> is a procedure with one parameter which is the number of the selected item to
call when item was selected.

EXAMPLE:
field$()=["INFO"," Menutest ","","FILE"," new"," open ..."," save","\
save as ...","--------------"," print","--------------"," Quit","",""℄
MENUDEF field$(),menua tion
DO
pause 0.05
MENU
LOOP
PROCEDURE menua tion(k)
PRINT "MENU sele ted ";k;" ontents: ";field$(k)
IF field$(k)=" Quit"
QUIT
ENDIF
RETURN

SEE ALSO: MENU, MENUSET, MENUKILL

273
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: MENUSET
Syntax: MENUSET n,x

DESCRIPTION:

Change apperance of menu-entry n with value x.

x=0 ’ ’ normal, reset marker ’(HOCH)’ x=1 ’(HOCH)’ set marker x=2 ’=’ set menu-point
non selectable x=3 ’ ’ set menue-point selectable x=4 check the menu entry ’-’ permanent non
selectable

SEE ALSO: MENU

274
 5.14 M

Command: MENUKILL
Syntax: MENUKILL

DESCRIPTION:

Erases the menu, which prior has been defined with MENUDEF.

SEE ALSO: MENUDEF

275
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: MERGE
Syntax: MERGE <filename>

DESCRIPTION:

MERGE appends a BASIC program to the program currently in memory. Program execu-
tion is not interrupted. This command typically is used to append often-used subroutines at
run-time.

SEE ALSO: CHAIN, LOAD

EXAMPLE:
MERGE "examples/hello.basi "

276
 5.14 M

Function: MID$()
Syntax: m$=MID$(t$,s[,l℄)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns l characters in a string from the positon s of the string t

.If sislargerthanthelengthof t
, then an empty string is returned. If l is omitted, then the function returns only one character
of the string from position x.

SEE ALSO: LEFT\$(), RIGHT\$()

277
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: MIN()
Syntax: m=MIN(a,b[, ,...℄)
m=MIN(f())

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the smallest value out of the list of arguments or the smallest value of an array.

SEE ALSO: MAX()

278
 5.14 M

Function: MKI$(), MKL$(), MKS$(), MKF$(), M

Syntax: <string-result>=MKI$(<num-expression>)
<string-result>=MKL$(<num-expression>)
<string-result>=MKS$(<num-expression>)
<string-result>=MKF$(<num-expression>)
<string-result>=MKD$(<num-expression>)
<string-result>=MKA$(<array-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Transforms a number into a character string.

MKI$ 16-bit number into a 2-byte string.
MKL$ 32-bit number into a 4-byte string.
MKS$ a number into a 4-byte float format.
MKF$ same as MKS$().
MKD$ a number into a 8-byte double float format. MKA$() transforms a whole Array into a
string. It can be beacktransformed with CVA().

SEE ALSO: CVI(), CVF(), CVL(), CVA(), CVS(), CVD()

279
5 X11-Basic command reference

Operator: MOD
Syntax: <num-result>=<num-expression:x> MOD <num-expression:y>

DESCRIPTION:

Produces the remainder of the division of x by y.

SEE ALSO: DIV, MOD()

Function: MOD()
Syntax: <num-result>=MOD(<num-expression:x>,<num-expression:y>)

DESCRIPTION:

Produces the remainder of the division of x by y.

SEE ALSO: DIV, MOD

280
 5.14 M

Command: MOUSE
Syntax: MOUSE x,y,k

DESCRIPTION:

Determines the mouse position (x,y) relative to the origin of the graphics window and the
status of the mouse buttons (k). k=0 no buttons pressed
k=1 left button
k=2 middle button
k=4 right buttons
or any combinations.

SEE ALSO: MOUSEX, MOUSEY, MOUSEK

281
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: MOUSEEVENT
Syntax: MOUSEEVENT x,[y,k,xroot,yroot,s℄

DESCRIPTION:

Waits until a mouse button is pressed (graphic window). Returns Mouse coorinate (x,y)
relative to window, mouse coorinate (xroot,yroot) relative to screen, mouse button and state of
the Alt/Shift/Caps keys.

SEE ALSO: MOUSE, MOUSEX, MOUSEY, MOUSEK, KEYEVENT

282
 5.14 M

Variable: MOUSEX, MOUSEY, MOUSEK, MOUSES

Syntax: <int-result:x>=MOUSEX
<int-result:y>=MOUSEY
<int-result:k>=MOUSEK
<int-result:s>=MOUSES

DESCRIPTION:

Determines the mouse position (x,y), the status of the mouse buttons (k) and the status of
the Shift and Control keys (s): k=0 no buttons pressed
k=1 left button
k=2 middle button
k=4 right buttons
or any combinations.
s=0 no Keys
s=1 Shift
s=2 CapsLock
s=4 Control
s=8 Alt
s=16 NumLock
s=64 Windows-Key
s=128 ScrollLock
or any combination.

SEE ALSO: MOUSE, SETMOUSE, MOUSEEVENT

283
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: MOTIONEVENT
Syntax: MOTIONEVENT x,y,xrrot,yroot,s

DESCRIPTION:

Waits until the mouse has been moved. (graphic window). Returns new mouse coorinate
(x,y) relative to window, mouse coorinate (xroot,yroot) relative to screen and state of the
Alt/Shift/Caps keys.

SEE ALSO: MOUSE, MOUSEX, MOUSEY, MOUSEK, MOUSEEVENT

284
 5.14 M

Command: MOVEW
Syntax: MOVEW n,x,y

DESCRIPTION:

Moves Wondow n to absolute screen position x,y

SEE ALSO: OPENW, SIZEW, TITLEW

285
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: MTFD$()
Syntax: b$=MTFD$(a$)

DESCRIPTION:

This function performs a Move To Front decoding function on an input string. The MTF
decoder keeps an array of 256 characters in the order that they have appeared. Each time
the encoder sends a number, the decoder uses it to look up a character in the corresponding
position of the array, and outputs it. That character is then moved up to position 0 in the array,
and all the in-between characters are moved down a spot.

SEE ALSO: MTFE\$()

286
 5.14 M

Function: MTFE$()
Syntax: b$=MTFE$(a$)

DESCRIPTION:

This function performs a Move To Front encoding function on an input string. An MTF
encoder encodes each character using the count of distinct previous characters seen since the
characters last appearance. This is implemented by keeping an array of characters. Each new
input character is encoded with its current position in the array. The character is then moved
to position 0 in the array, and all the higher order characters are moved down by one position
to make roon.

SEE ALSO: MTFD\$()

287
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: MUL
Syntax: MUL <num-var>,<num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Same as var=var*n but faster.

SEE ALSO: ADD, SUB, MUL(), DIV

*

Function: MUL()
Syntax: <num-result>=MUL(<num-expression>,<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns product of two numbers.

SEE ALSO: ADD(), SUB(), MUL, DIV()

288
 5.15 N

5.15 N

289
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: NEW
Syntax: NEW

DESCRIPTION:

NEW erases the program and all variables in memory (and stops execution of program.)

SEE ALSO: CLEAR

290
 5.15 N

Command: NEXT
Syntax: NEXT [<variable>℄

DESCRIPTION:

NEXT terminates a FOR loop. FOR loops must be nested correctly: The variable name after
NEXT is for looks only and can not be used to select a FOR statement. Each NEXT jumps to
the matching FOR statement regardless if and what <variable> is specified after NEXT.

SEE ALSO: FOR

EXAMPLE:
FOR n=1 TO 2
FOR m=10 to 11
PRINT "n=";n,"m=";m
NEXT m
NEXT n

291
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: NOP, NOOP

Syntax: NOP
NOOP

DESCRIPTION:

No Operation: do nothing.

292
 5.16 O

5.16 O

293
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: OBJC_ADD
Syntax: OBJC_ADD tree,parent, hild

DESCRIPTION:

Adds an object to a given tree and pointers between the existing objects and the new object
are created. tree address of the object tree parent object number of the parent object child
object number of the child to be added.

SEE ALSO: OBJC\_DELETE

294
 5.16 O

Command: OBJC_DELETE
Syntax: OBJC_DELETE tree,obje t

DESCRIPTION:

An object is deleted from an object tree by removing the pointers. The object is still there
and can be restored by repairing the pointers.
tree address of the object tree object Object number of the object to delete.

SEE ALSO: OBJC\_ADD

295
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: OBJC_DRAW()
Syntax: ret=obj _draw(tree,startob,depth, x, y, w, h)

DESCRIPTION:

Draws any object or objects in an object tree.

Each OBJC_DRAW call defines a new clip rectangle, to which the drawing is limited for
that call.
Returns 0 on error. tree address of the object tree startob number of the first object to
be drawn depth Number of object levels to be drawn cx,cy coordinates of top left corner of
clipping rectangle cw,ch width & height of clipping rectangle

SEE ALSO: OBJC\_FIND()

296
 5.16 O

Function: OBJC_FIND()
Syntax: idx=obj _find(tree,startob,depth,x,y)

DESCRIPTION:

Finds an object under a specific screen coordinate. (These may be the mouse coordinates.)
The application supplies a pointer to the object tree, the index to the start object to search
from, the x- and y-coordinates of the mouse’s position, as well as a parameter that tells
OBJC_FIND how far downthe tree to search (depth).
This Fucntion returns the index of the found Object or -1 in case no object could be found.

SEE ALSO: OBJC\_DRAW()

297
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: OBJC_OFFSET()
Syntax: ret=obj _offset(tree,obj,x,y)

DESCRIPTION:

Calculates the absolute screen coordinates of the specified object in a specified tree. Returns
0 on error. tree address of the object tree obj object number x,y returns the x,y coordinates to
these variables.

SEE ALSO: OBJC\_FIND()

298
 5.16 O

o$=OCT$(d%,n%) ON * GOSUB proc1$[$,proc2,...$]$

299
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: ON BREAK
Syntax: ON BREAK CONT
ON BREAK GOSUB <pro edure>
ON BREAK GOTO <label>

DESCRIPTION:

ON BREAK installs a subroutine that gets called when the BREAK condition (normally
CTRL-c) occurs. ON BREAK CONT causes the program to continue in any case. ON
BREAK GOTO jumps to a specified label.

SEE ALSO: GOTO, ON ERROR

300
 5.16 O

Command: ON ERROR
Syntax: ON ERROR CONT
ON ERROR GOSUB <pro edure>
ON ERROR GOTO <label>

DESCRIPTION:

ON ERROR installs an error handling subroutine that gets called when the next error occurs.
ON ERROR CONT will ignore any error.

SEE ALSO: GOSUB, ERROR

301
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: OPEN
Syntax: OPEN <mode>,<devi e-number>,<filename>[,<port-value>℄

DESCRIPTION:

OPEN opens the specified file for reading or writing or both. The <device-number> is the
number you want to assign to the file (functions that read from files or write to files expect to
be given this number). The device number must be between 0 and 99 in the current imple-
mentation of X11-Basic. When you close a file, the device number is released and can be used
again in subsequent OPEN statements.
<mode> is a character string which indicates the way the File should be opened. The first
character of that String may be "O", "I", "U" or "A". These characters correspont to the
mode for which the file is opened: "I" – INPUT, "O" –OUTPUT, "A" – APPEND and "U" –
UNSPECIFIED. Open a file for INPUT if you want to read data from the file. If you open
a file for OUTPUT, you can write to the file. However, all data that was stored in the file
(if the file already exists) is lost. If you want to write new data to a file while keeping the
existing content, open the file for appending to it, using the APPEND mode. When you open
a file using the RANDOM ("U") keyword, you can both read from the file and write to the
file at arbitrary positions. You can, for example, seek a position in the middle of the file and
start appending new lines of text. All file modes but INPUT create the file if it does not exist.
OPEN "I" fails if the file does not exist (use the EXIST() function before OPEN to be sure that
the file exists).
The second character specifies the type of File which should be opened or created: "" default
opens regular file "U" opens a datagramm socket connection "C" opens a Strem socket as client
with connection "S" opens a stream socket as server "A" Socket accept connection "X" extra
settings for a special device following: (e.g. speed and parity of transmission via serial ports)
"UX:baud,parity,bits,stopbits,flow"
<port-nr> The portnr is used only by the OPEN "UC" and OPEN "UU" statement. It deter-
mines the TCP/IP Port of connection (FTP, WWW, TELNET, MAIL etc.).

SEE ALSO: CLOSE, EXIST(), INPUT, LINEINPUT, PRINT, SEEK, LOF(), EOF(),
LOC(), BLOAD, LINK, FREEFILE(), CONNECT

EXAMPLES:
OPEN "I",#1,"data.dat" ---- opens file "data.dat" for input
OPEN "UC",#1,"lo alhost",80 ---- opens port 80 of lo alhost for read and#

302
 5.16 O

write
OPEN "UX:9600,N,8,1,XON,CTS,DTR",#1,"/dev/ttyS1"
---- open COM2 for input and output with 9600:8:N:1 with
software flow ontrol and hardware flow ontrol and also
drop DTR line and raise it again.

303
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: OPENW
Syntax: OPENW n

DESCRIPTION:

Opens a graphic window. There can be up to 16 graphic windows opened. All graphic
output goes to the window which was opened latest. OPENW can be used to switch between
multiple windows. Window 1 os opened automatically on default when the first graphic com-
mand is executed and no other window is already opened.

SEE ALSO: CLOSEW, MOVEW, SIZEW, TITLEW, ROOTWINDOW

304
 5.16 O

Command: OUT
Syntax: OUT #n,a

DESCRIPTION:

Writes a byte a to an open channel n.

SEE ALSO: PRINT, INP()

305
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.17 P

306
 5.17 P

Command: PAUSE
Syntax: PAUSE <se >

DESCRIPTION:

pauses <sec> seconds. The resolution of this command is microseconds (in theory).

307
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: PBOX
Syntax: PBOX x1,y1,x2,y2

DESCRIPTION:

Draws a filled box.

SEE ALSO: BOX, RBOX, DEFFILL, COLOR

308
 5.17 P

Command: PCIRCLE
Syntax: PCIRCLE x,y,r[,a1,a2℄

DESCRIPTION:

Draws a filled circle (sector).

SEE ALSO: CIRCLE, DEFFILL, COLOR

309
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: PEEK()
Syntax: <int-result>=PEEK(<address>)

DESCRIPTION:

PEEK() reads a byte from an address in memory. The following example dumps a section
of the internal memory near a string t$.

EXAMPLE:
t$="Hallo, this is a string..."
i=varptr(t$)-2000
DO
PRINT "$";HEX$(i,8,8)'
FOR iu=0 TO 15
PRINT HEX$(PEEK(i+iu) and 255,2,2)'
NEXT iu
PRINT '
FOR iu=0 TO 15
a=PEEK(i+iu)
IF a>31
PRINT CHR$(a);
ELSE
PRINT ".";
ENDIF
NEXT iu
PRINT
ADD i,16
LOOP

SEE ALSO: POKE

310
 5.17 P

Command: PELLIPSE
Syntax: PELLIPSE x,y,a,b[,a1,a2℄

DESCRIPTION:

Draws a filled ellipse

SEE ALSO: PCIRCLE, ELLIPSE, DEFFILL, COLOR

311
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: PIPE
Syntax: PIPE #n1,#n2

DESCRIPTION:

PIPE links two File channels n1 and n2 together to form a pipe. n1 is for reading, n2 is for
writing. Whatever you write to the pipe can be read from it at a different time. The content is
buffered in the kernel. The mechanism is FIFI (0 first in first out). The biggest advantage is,
that you can read and write to it from different processes (created by FORK()). This allows
inter-process communication.

SEE ALSO: CLOSE, OPEN, FORK()

312
 5.17 P

Command: PLIST
Syntax: PLIST

DESCRIPTION:

Outputs a formatted listing of the actual program in memory. Alos the internal tokens are
printed ans some internal Information. This is intended for internal use only.

EXAMPLE:
> PLIST
0: $00001a | 0,0 |CLS
1: $000279 | 0,0 |PRINT
2: $000279 | 0,1 |PRINT " example how to use the ansi olor spe ."
3: $000279 | 0,0 |PRINT
4: $000279 | 0,1 |PRINT "X 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0"
5: $310240 | 12,1 |FOR U=0 TO 3
6: $310240 | 11,1 | FOR J=0 TO 7
7: $310240 | 10,1 | FOR I=0 TO 7
8: $000279 | 0,1 | PRINT AT(J+6,2*I+2+16*U);CHR$(27)+"["+STR$(U)+";"+STR$(30+I)+";"+STR$(40+J)+
9: $320266 | 7,1 | NEXT I
10: $320266 | 6,1 | NEXT J
11: $320266 | 5,1 |NEXT U
12: $000279 | 0,0 |PRINT
13: $00047f | 0,0 |QUIT
14: $0008ff | 0,0 |=?=> 2303

SEE ALSO: LIST

313
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: PLOT
Syntax: PLOT x,y

DESCRIPTION:

draws point at screen coordinate x,y

SEE ALSO: LINE, POINT(), COLOR

314
 5.17 P

Function: POINT()
Syntax: =POINT(x,y)

DESCRIPTION:

returns colour of graphic point x,y in current window

SEE ALSO: PLOT

315
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: POKE
Syntax: POKE adr%,byte%

DESCRIPTION:

writes Byte to address adr%

SEE ALSO: PEEK(), DPOKE, LPOKE

316
 5.17 P

Command: POLYLINE
Syntax: POLYLINE n,x(),y()[,x_off,y_off℄

DESCRIPTION:

POLYLINE draws a polygon with n corners. The x,y coordinates for the corner points
are given in arrays x() and y(). The optional parameters x_off,y_off can be added to these
coordinates.
To draw a closed polygon, the first point hast to be equal to the last point.

SEE ALSO: LINE, DEFLINE, COLOR, POLYFILL, POLYMARK

317
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: POLYFILL
Syntax: POLYFILL n,x(),y()[,x_off,y_off℄

DESCRIPTION:

POLYFILL draws a filled polygon with n corners. The x,y coordinates for the corner points
are given in arrays x() and y(). The optional parameters x_off,y_off can be added to these
coordinates. POLYFILL fills the polygon with the color and pattern previously defined by
COLOR and DEFFILL.

SEE ALSO: COLOR, DEFFILL, POLYLINE, POLYMARK

318
 5.17 P

Command: POLYMARK
Syntax: POLYMARK n,x(),y()[,x_off,y_off℄

DESCRIPTION:

POLYMARK marks the corner points of an invisible polygon with n corners. The x,y
coordinates for the corner points are given in arrays x() and y(). The optional parameters
x_off,y_off can be added to these coordinates.
POLYMARK marks the points with the shape defined by DEFMARK.

SEE ALSO: COLOR, DEFLINE, POLYLINE, POLYFILL

319
5 X11-Basic command reference

POS PRBOX x1,y1,x2,y2 – filled rounded box t$=PRG$(i) – Programmzeile i (Quelltext)

320
 5.17 P

Command: PRINT ABBREV. ?

Syntax: PRINT [[AT(),TAB(),SPC(),COLOR()℄a$b|const|USING|...;’,]|

DESCRIPTION:

The print-statement writes all its arguments to the screen (standard output); after writing its
last argument, print goes to the next line (as in print "Hello ",a$," !"); to avoid this automatic
newline, place a semicolon (;) after the last argument (as in print "Please enter your Name:";).
To insert a tabulator instead of the automatic newline append a colon (,), e.g. print "Please
enter your Name:", . Note that print can be abbreviated with a single question mark (?).
Advanced printing: PRINT AT(), PRINT colour and PRINT USING
PRINT AT
For interactive programs you might want to print output at specific locations. Try the next
example: PRINT AT(4,7);"Test"
TAB and SPC PRINT "Hallo";TAB(30);"Test" PRINT "Hallo";SPC(30);"Test"
PRINT COLOR PRINT COLOR(32,2);"Hallo"
The COLOR statement takes up to three arguments. Their meaning is:
Text Mode: Text color: Backgroud color:
0 default setting 30 black 40 black 1 intensive 31 red 41 red 2 dark 32 green 42 green 33
yellow 43 yellow 4 underline 34 blue 44 blue 5 blink 35 magenta 45 magenta 36 cyan 46 cyan
7 reverse 37 white 47 white
PRINT USING
To control the way numbers are printed, use the print using statement: print 12.34 using
"###.####" produces 12.3400. The format string ("###.####") consists of hashes (#) with one
optional dot and it pictures the appearance of the number to print.

SEE ALSO: GPRINT, STR\$(), INPUT

321
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: PROCEDURE
Syntax: PROCEDURE pro name [(p1 [,p2℄ ... )℄ * RETURN

DESCRIPTION:

PROCEDURE starts a user-defined multi-line subroutine which can be executed by the

GOSUB command. any number of parameters may be passed to the PROCEDURE via the
parameter list. The Variables in that list act like local variables inside the subroutine.
All variables declared inside the PROCEDURE block are global variables unless you de-
clare them as local with the LOCAL command. The PROCEDURE name may be followed by
a list of parameter variables representing the values and variables in the calling line. Variables
in the calling line reach the PROCEDURE "by-value" unless the VAR keyword is used in the
calling line. In that case, the variable is passed "by-reference" to the PROCEDURE so that
the PROCEDURE "gets" the variable and not only its value. Variables passed "by-reference"
can be changed by the PROCEDURE. The PROCEDURE block is terminated by the RE-
TURN statement which resumes execution of the calling expression. Unlike a FUNCTION-
subroutine, a PROCEDURE can not return a value.

SEE ALSO: GOSUB, RETURN, LOCAL, FUNCTION

322
 5.17 P

Function: PTST()
Syntax: =PTST(x,y)

DESCRIPTION:

returns colour of graphic point x,y in current window. Same as POINT().

SEE ALSO: POINT(), PLOT

323
5 X11-Basic command reference

PSAVE a$ – writes the reformatted BASIC-program into file with the name a$ PUT x,y,g$
– displays graphic stored in g$ at postion x,y PUTBACK $[$#n,$]$a – puts character a back
to input channel n PUT_BITMAP t$,i,i,i,i

324
 5.18 Q

5.18 Q

325
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: QUIT
Syntax: QUIT [<return- ode>℄

DESCRIPTION:

QUIT exits the interpreter. You may set a <return-code> which will be passed to the pro-
gram running the interpreter.

SEE ALSO: END

326
 5.19 R

5.19 R

327
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: RANDOM()
Syntax: <num-result> = RND(<maximum>)

DESCRIPTION:

RANDOM() returns a pseudo-random integer number between 0 (inclusive) and <maxi-

mum> (exclusive). The sequence of pseudo-random numbers is identical each time you start
the interpreter unless the RANDOMIZE statement is used prior to using RANDOM(): RAN-
DOMIZE seeds the pseudo-random number generator to get a new sequence of numbers from
RANDOM().

SEE ALSO: RND(), RANDOMIZE, GASDEV

EXAMPLE:
PRINT RANDOM(10)
Result: 8

328
 5.19 R

Command: RANDOMIZE
Syntax: RANDOMIZE [<seed-expression>℄

DESCRIPTION:

RANDOMIZE seeds the pseudo-random number generator to get a new sequence of num-
bers from RND(). Recommended argument to RANDOMIZE is a "random" number to ran-
domly select a sequence of pseudo-random numbers. If RANDOMIZE is not used then the
sequence of numbers returned by RND() will be identical each time the interpreter is started.
If no argument is given, the TIMER value will be used as a seed.

SEE ALSO: RND(), TIMER

329
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: RBOX
Syntax: RBOX x1,y1,x2,y2

DESCRIPTION:

Draws a rectangle with rounded corners from the two diagonally opposite corner points
’x1,y1’ and ’x2,y2’

SEE ALSO: BOX, PBOX, PRBOX

330
 5.19 R

Command: READ
Syntax: READ var[,var2, ...℄

DESCRIPTION:

Reads constant values from a DATA command and assigns them to a variable ’var’. Reading
is taken from the last point a RESTORE was done (if any).

SEE ALSO: DATA, RESTORE

331
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: RELSEEK
Syntax: RELSEEK [#℄n,d

DESCRIPTION:

Place file pointer on new relative position d which means it moves the file pointer forward
(d>0) or backwards (d<0) d bytes.

SEE ALSO: SEEK, LOC(), LOF(), EOF()

332
 5.19 R

Command: REM ABBREV. '

Syntax: REM This is a omment
' This also is a omment

DESCRIPTION:

This command reserves the entire line for a comment.

COMMENT:
Note, that rem is an abbreviation for remark.
Do use comments in your programs, the more the better. Yes, the program will become
longer, but it’s nice to be able to understand a well- documented program that you’ve never
seen before. Or one of your own masterpieces that you haven’t looked at for a couple of
years. Don’t worry about the speed of your program, except in loops or often called Proce-
dures/Functions. There a comment-line (beginning with REM or ’) will slow the interpreter
down. A comment after ’!’ has no influence on the speed of a program, so you can use these
everywhere.

SEE ALSO: !

333
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: REPEAT
Syntax: REPEAT ... UNTIL <expression>

DESCRIPTION:

REPEAT initiates a REPEAT...UNTIL loop. The loop ends with UNTIL and execution
reiterates until the UNTIL <expression> is not FALSE (not null). The loop body is executed
at least once.

SEE ALSO: DO, LOOP, UNTIL, EXIT IF, BREAK, WHILE

EXAMPLE:
REPEAT
INC n
UNTIL n=10

334
 5.19 R

Function: REPLACE$()
Syntax: <string-result> = REPLACE$(<string-expression>, <sear h string>, <repla e stri

DESCRIPTION:

REPLACE$() returns string-expression where all <search string> have been replaced by
<replace string>.

SEE ALSO: INSTR(), WORT\_SEP

EXAMPLE:
PRINT REPLACE$("Hello","l","w")
Result: Hewwo

335
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: RESTORE
Syntax: RESTORE [<label>℄

DESCRIPTION:

RESTORE sets the position DATA is read from to the first DATA line of the program (or to
the first DATA line after <label> if RESTORE is used with an argument).

SEE ALSO: DATA, READ

EXAMPLE:
READ a, b,
RESTORE
READ a, b,
DATA 1, 2, 3

336
 5.19 R

Command: RESUME
Syntax: RESUME
RESUME NEXT
RESUME <label>

DESCRIPTION:

The RESUME command is especially meaningful with error capture (ON ERROR GOSUB)
where it allows a reaction to an error. Anyway, X11-Basic allows the us of RESUME <label>
everywhere in the program (instead of GOTO <label>), and can be used to jump out of a
subroutine. If you jump into another Subroutine, you must not reach its RETURN statement.
RESUME is a bad command and I dislike it very much.
RESUME repeats the erroneous command. RESUME NEXT resumes program execution
after an incorrect command. RESUME <label> branches to the <label>. If a fatal error occurs
only RESUME <label> is possible
**** RESUME is still not working. If you use ON ERROR GOSUB to a subroutine then
RESUME NEXT is the default if the subroutine reaches a RETURN. If you want to resume
somwhere else you can just GOTO out of the subroutine. This is possible, but leaves the
internal stack pointer incremented, so you should not do this too often during runtime. other-
wise there will be a stack overflow after 200 events. **** looks like this also happens with
ON ERROR GOTO. *** In future versions of X11-Basic there might be a RESUME <label>
command which properly resets the stack. If you want this to be fixed, please send me an
email with your test program.

SEE ALSO: ON ERROR, GOTO, ERROR

337
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: RETURN
Syntax: RETURN
RETURN <expression>

DESCRIPTION:

RETURN terminates a PROCEDURE reached via GOSUB and resumes execution after the
calling line. Note that code reached via ON ERROR GOSUB should be terminated with a
RESUME NEXT, not with RETURN.
RETURN <expression> states the result of the expression as a result of a user defined
function. This can not be used in PROCEDURES but in FUNCTIONS. The expression must
be of the type the function was.

SEE ALSO: PROCEDURE, FUNCTION, ENDFUNCTION, RESUME, GOSUB, , ON ERROR

EXAMPLE:
PROCEDURE testroutine
PRINT "Hello World !"
RETURN
FUNCTION givemefive
RETURN 5
ENDFUNCTION

338
 5.19 R

Function: REVERSE$()
Syntax: a$=REVERSE$(t$)

DESCRIPTION:

Reverses a String.

SEE ALSO: UPPER\$(), TRIM\$()

339
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: RINSTR()
Syntax: <int-result>=RINSTR(s1$,s2$[,n℄)

DESCRIPTION:

Operates in same way as INSTR except that search begins at the right end of s1$. tests if
s2$ is contained in s1$, then returns start-position of s2$, else 0. start comparison at pos. n
(default=1) start comparison at right

SEE ALSO: INSTR()

340
 5.19 R

Function: RLD$()
Syntax: a$=RLD$(a$)

DESCRIPTION:

Does a run length decoding of string a$. This function reverses the Run Length Encoding
function on a string.
In the input string, any two consecutive characters with the same value flag a run. A byte
following those two characters gives the count of additional(!) repeat characters, which can
be anything from 0 to 255.

SEE ALSO: RLE\$()

341
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: RLE$()
Syntax: a$=RLE$(a$)

DESCRIPTION:

Does a run length encoding of string a$. This function performs a Run Length Encoding
function on a string. In the output string, any two consecutive characters with the same value
flag a run. A byte following those two characters gives the count of additional(!) repeat
characters, which can be anything from 0 to 255. The resulting String might be shorter than
the input string if there are many equal characters following each other. In the worst case the
resulting string will be 50% longer.

SEE ALSO: RLD\$()

342
 5.19 R

Function: RND()
Syntax: <num-result> = RND(<dummy>)

DESCRIPTION:

RND() returns a pseudo-random number between 0 (inclusive) and 1 (exclusive). The se-
quence of pseudo-random numbers is identical each time you start the interpreter unless the
RANDOMIZE statement is used prior to using RND(): RANDOMIZE seeds the pseudo-
random number generator to get a new sequence of numbers from RND().

SEE ALSO: RANDOMIZE, GASDEV(), RANDOM()

EXAMPLE:
PRINT RND(1)
Result: 0.3352227557149

343
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: ROUND()
Syntax: <num-result>=ROUND(<num-expression:b>[,n℄)

DESCRIPTION:

Rounds off a value to n fractional digits. n<0: round to digits in front of the decimal point.

SEE ALSO: INT(), FIX(), FLOOR(), TRUNC()

344
 5.19 R

RSRC_FREE – frees GEM rsc-File (ATARI ST) RSRC_GADDR(type,index,addr) RSRC_LOAD

filename$ – loads GEM rsc-File (ATARI ST)

345
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: RUN
Syntax: RUN

DESCRIPTION:

starts program execution (RUN)

SEE ALSO: STOP, CONT, LOAD

346
 5.20 S

5.20 S

347
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SAVE
Syntax: SAVE [a$℄

DESCRIPTION:

writes the BASIC-program into a file with the name a$

SEE ALSO: LOAD

348
 5.20 S

Command: SAVESCREEN
Syntax: SAVESCREEN t$

DESCRIPTION:

Saves the whole Graphic-Screen (Desktop) into a file with name t$. The Graphics format is
XWD (X-Window dump). Maybe later this will be changed to png (portable network graphic).

SEE ALSO: SAVEWINDOW

349
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SAVEWINDOW
Syntax: SAVEWINDOW t$

DESCRIPTION:

Saves the actual X11-Basic Graphic-Window into a file with name t$. The Graphics format
is XWD (X-Window dump).

SEE ALSO: SAVESCREEN, SGET

350
 5.20 S

Command: SCOPE
Syntax: SCOPE a(),typ,ys ale,yoffset -- S hnelles Plotten des Feldes a()
SCOPE y(),x(),typ,ys ale,yoffset,xs ale,xoffset -- 2D Plot

DESCRIPTION:

SEE ALSO: LINE, POLYLINE

351
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SCREEN
Syntax: SCREEN n

DESCRIPTION:

This commands select the Screen-Resolution in SVGA-Mode. It is only available in the

SVGA-Version of X11-Basic and has no effect on the X11-Version or WINDOWS-Version.
Following Screen modes are supported: n Mode =======================================
0 TEXT-Mode, no graphics 1 320x 200 16 colors 2 640x 200 16 colors 3 640x 350 16 colors
4 640x 480 16 colors 5 320x 200 256 colors 6 320x 240 256 colors 7 320x 400 256 colors 8
360x 480 256 colors 9 640x 480 monochrome 10 640x 480 256 colors 11 800x 600 256 colors
12 1024x 768 256 colors
13 1280x1024 256 colors
14 320x200 15Bit colors 15 320x200 16Bit colors 16 320x200 24Bit colors
17 640x480 15Bit colors 18 640x480 16Bit colors 19 640x480 24Bit colors
20 800x600 15Bit colors 21 800x600 16Bit colors 22 800x600 24Bit colors
23 1024x768 15Bit colors 24 1024x768 16Bit colors 25 1024x768 24Bit colors
26 1280x1024 15Bit colors 27 1280x1024 16Bit colors 28 1280x1024 24Bit colors
29 800x 600 16 colors 30 1024x 768 16 colors 31 1280x1024 16 colors
32 720x 348 monochrome Hercules emulation mode 33-37 32-bit per pixel modes. 38-74
additional resolutions

SEE ALSO: VGA-Version of X11-Basi

352
 5.20 S

Command: SEEK
Syntax: SEEK #n[,d℄

DESCRIPTION:

Place file pointer of channel n on new absolute position d (Default on Position 0 which is
the beginning of File.)

SEE ALSO: RELSEEK, LOC(), EOF(), LOF()

353
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SEND
Syntax: SEND #n,msg$[,adr%,port%℄

DESCRIPTION:

SEND is used to transmit a message via fast UDP datagramms to another socket which may
be on another host. Send with only two parameters may be used only when the socket is in
a connected state (see CONNECT), otherwise the destination adress and the port has to be
specified.
The address of the target is given by adr%, which usually contains a IP4 adress (e.g.
cvl(chr$(127)+chr$(0)+chr$(0)+chr$(1)) which corresponds to 127.0.0.1). msg$ can be an
arbitrary message with any data in it. The length of the message must not exceed 1500 Bytes.
If the message is too long to pass atomically through the underlying protocol, an error occurs,
and the message is not transmitted.
No indication of failure to deliver is implicit in a send.
When the message does not fit into the send buffer of the socket, send blocks. The OUT?()
function may be used to determine when it is possible to send more data.

SEE ALSO: OPEN, CLOSE, CONNECT, RECEIVE, OUT?()

354
 5.20 S

SELECT ??? SETENV t$=a$ – Sets environmentvar t$ using value a$

355
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SETFONT
Syntax: SETFONT t$

DESCRIPTION:

Loads and sets a X11 Font. t$ may be the fontname or any valid Font pattern.

SEE ALSO: TEXT

356
 5.20 S

Command: SETMOUSE
Syntax: SETMOUSE x,y[,k℄

DESCRIPTION:

The SETMOUSE command permits the positioning of the mouse cursor under program
control. Tje optional parameter k can simulate the mouse button being pressed or released.

SEE ALSO: MOUSE

357
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SGET
Syntax: SGET s reen$

DESCRIPTION:

stores content of actual X11-Basic Graphics window in screen$.

SEE ALSO: SPUT, SAVEWINDOW

358
 5.20 S

Function: SGN()
Syntax: a=SGN(b)

DESCRIPTION:

SGN returns the sign of a number b. It may be -1 if b is negative 0 if b equals 0 1 if b is

positive.

SEE ALSO: ABS()

359
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: SHM_ATTACH()
Syntax: adr=SHM_ATTACH(id)

DESCRIPTION:

Attach a shared memory segment to programs address space.

SEE ALSO: SHM\_MALLOC(), SHM\_DETACH, SHM\_FREE

360
 5.20 S

Command: SHM_DETACH
Syntax: SHM_DETACH id

DESCRIPTION:

Detach a shared memory segment.

SEE ALSO: SHM\_MALLOC(), SHM\_ATTACH()

361
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SHM_FREE
Syntax: SHM_FREE adr

DESCRIPTION:

Free a shared memory segment.

SEE ALSO: SHM\_MALLOC()

362
 5.20 S

Function: SHM_MALLOC()
Syntax: adr=SHM_MALLOC(a,b)

DESCRIPTION:

Allocate a shared memory segment.

SEE ALSO: SHM\_FREE

363
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SHOWPAGE
Syntax: SHOWPAGE

DESCRIPTION:

refreshes graphic output

SEE ALSO: VSYNC

364
 5.20 S

Function: SIN()
Syntax: <num-result>=SIN(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the sinus of the expression in radians.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT SIN(PI/2) Result: 1

SEE ALSO: COS(), TAN(), ACOS()

365
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: SINH()
Syntax: <num-result>=SINH(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns the sinus hyperbolicus of the expression in radians.

SEE ALSO: SIN(), ASINH()

366
 5.20 S

Command: SIZEW
Syntax: SIZEW nr,w,h

DESCRIPTION:

Resizes the graphic window nr with width w and heigth h.

SEE ALSO: OPENW, MOVEW

367
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SORT
Syntax: SORT <array-name>()[,<n>[,<2nd array>()℄℄

DESCRIPTION:

SORT sorts the one-dimensional array specified as argument. Numeric arrays and string
arrays can be sorted. If <n> is given, only the first <n> values are sorted. If <2nd array> is
given, this (numerical) array will also be sorted corresponding to the first. This is useful for
creating an index table.

368
 5.20 S

Command: SOUND
Syntax: SOUND <frequen y>

DESCRIPTION:

SOUND sounds the internal speaker with frequency $[$Hz$]$. If frequency=0 shut up
speaker.
COMMENT: The internal speaker is accessed via a console device. The sound does not
work unter xterm.

EXAMPLE:
SOUND 500
PAUSE 0.1
SOUND 0

SEE ALSO: PAUSE

369
5 X11-Basic command reference

Variable: SP
Syntax <int-value>=SP
DESCRIPTION:

Variable represents the internal X11-Basic Stack Pointer.

SEE ALSO: PC

370
 5.20 S

Function: SPACE$()
Syntax: t$=SPACE$(n)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns a string containing n spaces.

SEE ALSO: STRING\$()

371
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: SOLVE()
Syntax: x()=SOLVE(m(),d())

DESCRIPTION:

Soves a set of linear equations d()=M()*x(). M() has to be a 2 dim Array not necessarily
a square matrix. d() must be a 1 dim Array with exactly as many elements as lines of M().
x() will be a 1 dim Array with exactly as many elements as rows of M(). Internally a singular
value decomposition is used to solve the equation. If singular values found to be smaller than
1e-10 of the largest value they are set to zero.

SEE ALSO: INV(), DET()

372
 5.20 S

Command: SPLIT
Syntax: SPLIT t$,t$,i%,var$[,var$℄

DESCRIPTION:

Same as WORT_SEP.

SEE ALSO: WORT\_SEP

373
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SPUT
Syntax: SPUT s reen$

DESCRIPTION:

(xwd) Grafik in screen$ auf Window SEE ALSO: SGET, PUT\_BITMAP

374
 5.20 S

Function: SQR(), SQRT()

Syntax: <num-result> = SQR(<num-expression>)
<num-result> = SQRT(<num-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

SQR() and SQRT() return the square root of its argument.

EXAMPLES:
PRINT SQR(25)
Result: 5
PRINT "Cal ulate square root of a number."
INPUT "Number=",z
r124=1
105:
r123=r124
r124=(r123^2+z)/(2*r123)
IF ABS(r124-r123)-0.00001>0
PRINT r124
GOTO 105
ENDIF
PRINT "Result of this algorithm:"'r124
PRINT "Compare with: sqrt(";z;")=";SQRT(z)
PRINT "Deviation:"'ABS(SQRT(z)-r124)

SEE ALSO: Operator ^

375
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: SRAND()
Syntax: VOID SRAND(b)

DESCRIPTION:

The SRAND() function sets its argument as the seed for a new sequence of pseudo-random
integers to be returned by RAND(), RANDOM() or RND(). These sequences are repeatable
by calling SRAND() with the same seed value.

SEE ALSO: RANDOMIZE, RANDOM(), RND(), RAND()

376
 5.20 S

Variable: STIMER
Syntax: <int-result>=STIMER

DESCRIPTION:

Integer part of TIMER

SEE ALSO: TIMER, CTIMER

377
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: STOP
Syntax: STOP

DESCRIPTION:

STOP halts program execution and sets the interpreter to interactive mode. The execution
can be continued with the CONT command.

SEE ALSO: CONT, END, QUIT

378
 5.20 S

STR$(1-4) t$=STR$(a$[$,b,c$]$) – convert number to String of length b with c signifikant

digits STRING$(1-2) SUB var,num SUCC(1) SWAP ???,???

379
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: SWAP()
Syntax: <num-result>=SWAP(<num-expression:b>)

DESCRIPTION:

Swaps High and Low words of b and returns the result.

SEE ALSO: BYTE(), CARD(), WORD()

380
 5.20 S

Function: SYM_ADR()
Syntax: adr=SYM_ADR(#n,sym_name$)

DESCRIPTION:

SYM_ADR() resolves the adress of a symbol name of a given shared object library which
has been linked before.

EXAMPLE:
t$="/usr/lib/libreadline.so" ! If the readline shared obje t file
IF EXIST(t$) ! exist,
LINK #1,t$ ! link it, resolve the symbol "readline"
DUMP "#" ! and exe ute that subroutine with
promt$=">>>" ! one string parameter.
adr=EXEC(SYM_ADR(#1,"readline"),L:VARPTR(promt$))
r=adr
WHILE PEEK(r)>0 ! Print the result
PRINT CHR$(PEEK(r));
INC r
wend
PRINT
UNLINK #1 ! Unlink the dynami lib
FREE adr
ENDIF

SEE ALSO: LINK, UNLINK

381
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: SYSTEM
Syntax: SYSTEM <string-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

Passes a command to the shell. Executes shell command. This command provides a way to
use alle commands like rm, rmdir, mkdir etc. which are not implemented in X11-Basic.

EXAMPLE:
SYSTEM "mkdir folder"

SEE ALSO: SYSTEM\$()

382
 5.20 S

Function: SYSTEM$()
Syntax: <string-result>=SYSTEM$(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Passes a command to the shell. Executes shell command. The function returns a string
containing the stdout of the command executed.

EXAMPLE:
d$=SYSTEM$("ls")
PRINT d$

SEE ALSO: SYSTEM

383
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.21 T

384
 5.21 T

Function: TERMINALNAME$()
Syntax: t$=TERMINALNAME$(#n)

DESCRIPTION:

returns device name of terminal connected to #n if it is a terminal device.

385
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: TEXT
Syntax: TEXT x,y,t$

DESCRIPTION:

Draws Text t$ in graphics window at position x,y.

EXAMPLE:
' Show the omplete ASCII Font
SETFONT "*writer*18*"
COLOR GET_COLOR(65535,10000,10000)
FOR x=0 to 15
FOR y=0 to 15
TEXT 320+16*y,20+24*x,CHR$(y+16*x)
NEXT y
NEXT x
SHOWPAGE

SEE ALSO: SETFONT

386
 5.21 T

Variable: TIMER
Syntax: TIMER

DESCRIPTION:

Returns actual time in number of seconds since 01.01.1970.

SEE ALSO: STIMER, CTIMER, TIME\$, DATE\$, UNIXTIME\$(), UNIXDATE\$()

387
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: TITLEW
Syntax: TITLEW n,title$

DESCRIPTION:

Gives the window number ’n’, the new title title$

SEE ALSO: OPENW, INFOW

388
 5.21 T

Command: TOPW
Syntax: TOPW [n℄

DESCRIPTION:

Activates the windows number n and moves it to the top of the window stack.

SEE ALSO: BOTTOMW, MOVEW

389
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: TROFF
Syntax: TROFF

DESCRIPTION:

TROFF disables tracing output. This command is meant to be used during program devel-
opment.

SEE ALSO: TRON, ECHO

390
 5.21 T

Command: TRON
Syntax: TRON

DESCRIPTION:

TRON enables tracing output: each program line is displayed on the console before it is
executed. This command is meant to be used during program development.

SEE ALSO: TROFF, ECHO

391
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.22 U

392
 5.22 U

Function: UCASE$()
Syntax: <string-result>=UCASE$(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Transforms all lower case letters of a string to upper case. Any non letter characters are left
unchanged.

SEE ALSO: UPPER\$(), LOWER\$()

393
5 X11-Basic command reference

Variable: UNCOMPRESS$()
Syntax: t$=UNCOMPRESS$( $)

DESCRIPTION:

Uncompresses the content of a string which has been compressed with the COMPRESS$()
function before.

SEE ALSO: COMPRESS\$()

394
 5.22 U

Variable: UNIX?
Syntax: <bool-result>=UNIX?

DESCRIPTION:

Returns TRUE (-1) If the program is running under a UNIX evironment.

SEE ALSO: WIN32?, TT?

395
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: UNIXTIME$(), UNIXDATE$()

Syntax: t$=UNIXTIME$(i)
d$=UNIXDATE$(i)

DESCRIPTION:

These functions return the date and time as a string which has the same format as DATE$
and TIME$ given by a TIMER value.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT UNIXDATE$(1045390004.431), UNIXTIME$(1045390004.431)
Result: 16.02.2003 11:06:44

SEE ALSO: DATE\$, TIME\$, TIMER

396
 5.22 U

Command: UNLINK
Syntax: UNLINK #n

DESCRIPTION:

unlinks shared object file which has been linked before and occupies channel nr #n.

SEE ALSO: LINK, CLOSE

397
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: UNTIL
Syntax: UNTIL <expression>

DESCRIPTION:

UNTIL terminates a REPEAT...UNTIL loop.

SEE ALSO: REPEAT, DO

EXAMPLE:
REPEAT
N=N+1
UNTIL (N=10)

398
 5.22 U

Function: UPPER$()
Syntax: <string-result>=UPPER$(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

Transforms all lower case letters of a string to upper case. Any non letter characters are left
unchanged.

SEE ALSO: UCASE\$(), LOWER\$()

399
5 X11-Basic command reference

5.23 V

400
 5.23 V

Function: VAL()
Syntax: <num-result> = VAL(<string-expression>)

DESCRIPTION:

VAL() converts String/ASCII to a numeric value.

SEE ALSO: VAL?(), STR\$()

EXAMPLE:
a=VAL("3.1415926")

401
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: VAL?()
Syntax: a=val?(t$)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns number of characters forim string which can be converted to a number.

EXAMPLE:
print val?("12345.67e12Hallo") Result: 11

SEE ALSO: VAL()

402
 5.23 V

Function: VARPTR()
Syntax: <adr>=VARPTR(<variable>)

DESCRIPTION:

Determines the address of a variable and returns a pointer. VARPTR() can also be used to
determin the adress of an array index.

EXAMPLE:
PRINT VARPTR(t$), VARPTR(a(2,4))

SEE ALSO: ARRPTR()

403
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: VERSION
Syntax: VERSION

DESCRIPTION:

Shows X11-Basic version number and date.

EXAMPLE:
VERSION
Result: X11-BASIC Version: 1.08 vom Sat Feb 15 12:00:38 CET 2003

404
 5.23 V

Command: VOID ABBREV. ~

Syntax: VOID <expression>

DESCRIPTION:

This command performs a calculation and forgets the result. Sounds silly but there are
occasions when this command is required, eg. when you want to execute a function but you
are not really interested in the return value. e.g. waiting for a keystroke (inp(-2)).

SEE ALSO: GOSUB, 

EXAMPLE:
~INP(-2)
VOID FORM_ALERT(1,"[1℄[Hello℄[OK℄")

405
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: VSYNC
Syntax: VSYNC

DESCRIPTION:

Enables synchronization with the screen. Actually this is a synonyme for SHOWPAGE.
Graphic output will not be shown in the window until SHOWPAGE (or VSYNC).

SEE ALSO: SHOWPAGE

406
 5.24 W

5.24 W

407
5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: WHILE
Syntax: WHILE <num-expression>

DESCRIPTION:

WHILE initiates a WHILE...WEND loop. The loop ends with WEND and execution reiter-
ates while the WHILE <num-expression> is not FALSE (not null). Unlike a REPEAT...UNTIL
loop, the loop body is not necessarily executed at least once.

SEE ALSO: WEND, DO

EXAMPLE:
WHILE NOT EOF(#1)
LINEINPUT #1,a$
WEND

408
 5.24 W

Command: WEND
Syntax: WEND

DESCRIPTION:

WEND terminates a WHILE...WEND loop. SEE ALSO: WHILE, DO

EXAMPLE:
WHILE NOT EOF(#1)
LINEINPUT #1,a$
WEND

409
5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: WORD()
Syntax: a=WORD(b)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns lower 16 bits of b and expands sign.

SEE ALSO: BYTE(), CARD(), SWAP()

410
 5.24 W

Command: WORT_SEP
Syntax: WORT_SEP t$,d$,mode,a$,b$

DESCRIPTION:

Splits up string t$ into two parts a$ and b$ concerning a delimiter string d$. So that
t$=a$+d$+b$. mode can be: 0 – default 1 – do not serch parts of t$ which are in brackets.
Quoted parts of the string are not spit up.

EXAMPLE:
WORT_SEP "Hallo, this is a string."," ",0,a$,b$

SEE ALSO: SPLIT, WORT\_SEP()

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5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: WORT_SEP()
Syntax: <num-result>=WORT_SEP(t$,d$,mode,a$,b$)

DESCRIPTION:

Splits up string t$ into two parts a$ and b$ concerning a delimiter string d$. So that
t$=a$+d$+b$. mode can be: 0 – default 1 – do not serch parts of t$ which are in brackets.
Quoted parts of the string are not spit up.
The return value can be: 2 – The string has been split up. 1 – The string did not contain d$,
a$=t$, b$="" 0 – The string was empty. a$="",b$=""

SEE ALSO: SPLIT

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 5.25 X

5.25 X

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5 X11-Basic command reference

Command: XLOAD
Syntax: XLOAD

DESCRIPTION:

Opens a fileselector where the user can select a basic source file which then will be load
into memory.

SEE ALSO: XRUN, LOAD

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 5.25 X

Operator: XOR
Syntax: <num-expression1> XOR <num-expression2>

DESCRIPTION:

Logical exclusive OR operator. XOR returns fale (0) if both arguments have the same
logical value.
A & B & A XOR B
-1 & -1 & 0
Table: -1 & 0 & -1
0 & -1 & -1
0&0&0

SEE ALSO: NAND, OR, NOT, AND

EXAMPLE:
Print 3=3 XOR 4>2 Result: 0 (flase)
Print 3>3 XOR 5>3 Result: -1 (true)
PRINT (4 XOR 255) Result: 251

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5 X11-Basic command reference

Function: XOR()
Syntax: <num-result>=XOR(<num-expression>,<num-expression2>)

DESCRIPTION:

Returns <num-expression> XOR <num-expression2>

a & b & XOR(a,b)
-1 & -1 & 0
Table: -1 & 0 & -1
0 & -1 & -1
0&0&0

SEE ALSO: OR(), AND

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 5.25 X

Command: XRUN
Syntax: XRUN

DESCRIPTION:

Opens a fileselector where the user can select a basic source file which then will be load
into memory and executed.

SEE ALSO: XLOAD, RUN

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5 X11-Basic command reference

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6 Compatibility
6.1 General remarks
X11-Basic deviates in numerous aspects from ANSI BASIC. It in event is also different from
Gfa-Basic (Atari ST) all though it really looks similar:

ELSE IF vs. ELSEIF

This interpreter uses the ELSE IF form of the "else if" statement with a space between ELSE
and IF. In contrast, ANSI BASIC uses ELSEIF and END IF. Other interpreters may also use
the combination ELSEIF and END IF.

Local variables
Local variables must be declared local in the procedure/function. Any other variables are
treated as global.

Call By-Value vs. By-Reference

Variables in a GOSUB statement as in GOSUB test(a) are passed "by-value" to the PROCE-
DURE: the subroutine gets the value but can not change the variable. To pass the variable
"by-reference", use the VAR keyword as in "GOSUB test(VAR a)": the subroutine then not
only gets the value but the variable itself and can change it (for more information, see the doc-
umentation of the GO SUB statement). The same rules apply to FUNCTION: VAR in the pa
rameter list of a function call allows a FUNCTION to get a vari able parameter "by-reference".
In contrast, traditional BASIC in terpreters always pass variables in parameter lists "by-refer
ence". The problem with "by-reference" parameters is that you must be fully aware of what
happens inside the subroutine: as signments to parameter variables inside the subroutine might
change the values of variables in the calling line.

Assignment operator
X11-BASIC does not have an assignment operator but overloads the equal sign to act as the
assignment operator or as comparison operator depending on context: In a regular expression,
all equal signs are considered to be the comparison operator, as in IF (a=2). However, in

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6 Compatibility

an "assignment-style" expression (as in LET a=1), the first equal sign is considered to be the
assignment operator. Here is an example which assigns the result of a comparison (TRUE or
FALSE) to the variable <a> and thus shows both forms of usage of the equal sign:

a=(b= )

Assignments to modifiable lvalue

Some implementations of BASIC allow the use of functions on the left side of assignments
as in MID$(a$,5,1)="a". X11-Basic does not support this syntax but requires a variable (a
"modifiable lvalue") on the left side of such expressions.

TOS/GEM implementation
Because Gfa-Basic on ATARI-ST makes much use of the built in GUI functions of the ATARI
ST, the X11-Basic interpreter can only have limited compatibility. GEM style (and compat-
ible) ALERT boxes, menus and object trees are included in the interpreter and can be used
in a similar way. Even ATARI ST *.rsc files can be loaded. But Other functions like LINEA
functions, the VDISYS, GEMSYS, BIOS, XBIOS and GEMDOS calls are (of course) not
possible. Also many other commands are not implemented because the author thinks that they
have no useful effect on UNIX platforms. Some might be included in a later Version of X11-
Basic (see the list below). Since many Gfa-basic programs make use of more or less of these
functions, they will have to be modified before they can be run with X11-Basic.

The INLINE statement

The INLINE statement is not supported, because the source code of X11-Basic programs is
pure ASCII text. But an alternative has been implemented. (see INLINE$()).

6.2 GFA-Basic compatibility

Following GFA-Basic Commands and functions are not supported and probably never will be.
Most of them are obsolete on unix systems. When porting from GFA-Basic to X11-Basic they
have to be removed or replaced by an alternative routine:

obsolete, because there is an alternative function in X11-Basic:

== Comparison operator for approximately equal –> =

ARECT, ATEXT, HLINE LINE-A functions–> LINE, BOX, TEXT
ACHAR, ACLIP, ALINE, APOLY TO
–> TEXT,CLIP,LINE, POLY

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 6.2 GFA-Basic compatibility

COSQ(),SINQ() quick cosine/sine using an internal table –> COS(),SIN()

DIR Lists the files on a disc. –> system "ls"
DIR$() Names the active directory –> env$("PWD")
FILES Lists the files on a disk. –> system "ls -l"
FRE() Returns the amount of memory free (in bytes). –> see below
KILL Deletes a file –> system "rm -f ..."
MKDIR Creates a new directory. –> system "mkdir ..."
MSHRINK() Reduces the size of a storage area –> REALLOC()
NAME AS Renames an existing file. –> system "mv ..."
RC_COPY Copies rectangular screen sections (–> COPYAREA)
RENAME AS Rename a file. −→ SYSTEM "mv ..."
RESERVE Increases or decreases the memory used by basic (obsolete)
RMDIR Deletes empty directories −→ SYSTEM "rmdir "
SHEL_FIND() −→ SYSTEM "find ..."
SYSTEM obsolete −→ QUIT
SHEL_ENVRN() −→ ENV$()
SHEL_READ obsolete −→ PARAM$()
THEN keyword in If statements (obsolete)

For some GFA-Basic commands you can construckt replacement functions in X11-Basic
like:
' Get the free memory available (in Bytes)
' n=0 physi al memory
' n=1 Swap spa e
FUNCTION fre(n)
LOCAL i,a,t$,a$
a=FREEFILE()
OPEN "I",#a,"/pro /meminfo"
LINEINPUT #a,t$
IF n=1
LINEINPUT #a,t$
ENDIF
LINEINPUT #a,t$
t$=TRIM$(t$)
FOR i=0 to 3
WORT_SEP t$," ",0,a$,t$
NEXT i
CLOSE #a
RETURN val(a$)
ENDFUNCTION

obsolete, because TOS-Specific, and no similar function on other OSes exist:

ADDRIN, ADDROUT address of the AES Address Input/Output blocks

APPL_EXIT() Declare program has finished
APPL_INIT() Announce the program as an application.

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6 Compatibility

APPL_TPLAY() Plays back a record of user activities

APPL_TRECORD() makes a record of user activities
BIOS() call BIOS routies
CONTRL Address of the VDI control table.
FGETDTA() Returns the DTA (Disk Transfer Address).
FSETDTA Sets the address of the DTA
GB, GCONTRL Address of the AES Parameter/control Block
GDOS? Returns TRUE (-1) if GDOS is resident
GEMDOS() call the GEMDOS routines.
GEMSYS call the AES routinen
GINTIN, GINTOUT Address of the AES Integer input/output block.
HIMEM address of the area of memory which is not allocated by interpreter
INTIN, INTOUT Address of the VDI integer Input/output block.
L~A Returns base address of the LINE-A variables.
MENU_REGISTER() Give a desk accessory a name
MONITOR Calls a monitor resident in memory.
SHEL_GET, SHEL_PUT obsolete
SHEL_WRITE obsolete
VDIBASE, VDISYS VDI functions
VQT_EXTENT coordinates of a rectangle which surround the text
VQT_NAME() VDI function
VSETCOLOR TOS specific
VST_LOAD_FONTS(), VST_UNLOAD_FONTS()
V_CLRWK(), V_CLSVWK(), V_CLSWK(), V_OPNVWK()
V_OPNWK(), V_UPDWK() VDI-GDOS functions
V~H Returns the internal VDI handle
W_HAND(#n) Returns the GEM handle of the window
W_INDEX() Returns the window number of the specified GEM handle.
WORK_OUT() Determines the values from OPEN_WORKSTATION.
XBIOS() call XBIOS system routines.

obsolete, because ATARI-ST-Hardware-Specific, and no similar function exists

on UNIX platforms:

CHDRIVE Sets the default disk drive

DMACONTROL, DMASOUND Controls the DMA sound
INPMID$ read data from the MIDI port
LPENX, LPENY Returns the coordinates of a light pen.
PADT(), PADX(), PADY() Reads the paddle on the STE
STICK control the joystick

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 6.2 GFA-Basic compatibility

SDPOKE, SLPOKE, SPOKE Supervisor mode memory access

not supported because of other reasons:

APPL_READ() read from the event buffer.

APPL_WRITE() write to the event buffer.
BASEPAGE address of the basepage
BITBLT Raster copying command
CFLOAT() Changes integer into a floating point number.
DEFBIT, DEFBYT, DEFWRD, DEFFLT, DEFSTR sets the varaible type
DFREE() free space on a disc
GETSIZE() return the number of Bytes required by a screen area
HARDCOPY Prints the screen –> savescreen
INPAUX$ read data from the serial port
KEYDEF Assign a string to a Function Key.
LLIST Prints out the listing of the current program.
LPOS() column in which the printer head is located
LPRINT prints data on the printer.
PSAVE save with protection
RCALL Calls an assembler routine
SCRP_READ(), SCRP_WRITE()
communication between GEM programs.
SETCOLOR i,r,g,b set rgb value of color cell (–>GET_COLOR())
SETTIME Sets the time and the date.
WAVE Produces noises from the sound channels.
WINDTAB Gives the address of the Window Parameter Table.
WIND_CALC(), WIND_CLOSE(), WIND_CREATE(), WIND_DELETE(), WIND_FIND(),
WIND_GET(), WIND_OPEN(),
WIND_SET(), WIND_UPDATE() GEM-Wondow-Function
_DATA Specifies the position of the DATA pointer.

These GFA-Basic commands may be supported in a later versions of

X11-Basic:

ABSOLUTE x,y Assigns the address y to the variable x.

APPL_FIND(fname$) Returns the ID of the sought after application.
BYTE{x} read the contents of the address x
C: Calls a C or assembler program with parameters as in C
CARD{x} Reads/writes a 2-byte unsigned integer

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6 Compatibility

CHAR{x} Reads a string of bytes until a null byte is encountered

CHDIR Changes the current directory.
CRSCOL CRSLIN Returns current cursor line and column.
CURVE x0,y0,x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3
The BEZIER-Curve
DEFLIST x Defines the program listing format.
DEFMARK [C℄,[A℄,[G℄ Sets colour, type and size of the corner points
DEFNUM n Affects output of numbers by the PRINT command
DELETE x(i) Removes the ith element of array x.
DO UNTIL extention
DO WHILE extention
DOUBLE{x} reads/writes an 8-byte floating point variable
DRAW Draws points and lines
EVNT_BUTTON() Waits for one or more mouse clicks
EVNT_DCLICK() Sets the speed for double-clicks of a mouse button.
EVNT_KEYBD() Waits for a key to be pressed and returns a word
EVNT_MESAG() Waits for the arrival of a message in the event buffer.
EVNT_MOUSE() Waits for the mouse pointer to be located inside
EVNT_MULTI() Waits for the occurence of selected events.
EVNT_TIMER() waits for a period of time
FATAL Returns the value 0 or -1 according to the type of error
FIELD Divides records into fields.
FILL Fills a bordered area with a pattern
FORM INPUT Enables the insertion of a character string
FORM INPUT AS the current value of a$ is displayed, and can be edited.
FORM_BUTTON() Make inputs in a form possible using the mouse.
FORM_ERROR() Displays the ALERT associated with the error numbered
FORM_KEYBD() Allows a form to be edited via the keyboard.
FSEL_INPUT() Calls the AES fileselect library
FSFIRST() Searches for the first file to fulfill the criteria
FSNEXT() Search for the next file which fulfills the conditions
GET # Reads a record from a random access file.
GRAF_DRAGBOX() a rectangle to be moved about the screen
GRAF_GROWBOX() Draws an expanding rectangle.
GRAF_HANDLE() supplies the size of a character from the system set
GRAF_MKSTATE() supplies the current mouse coordinates
GRAF_MOUSE) allows the mouse shape to be changed.
GRAF_MOVEBOX() a moving rectangle with constant size
GRAF_RUBBERBOX() draws an outline of a rectangle
GRAF_SHRINKBOX() Draws an shrinking rectangle.
GRAF_SLIDEBOX() moves one rectangular object within another
GRAF_WATCHBOX() monitors an object tree while a mouse button is pressed
HIDEM Switches off the mouse pointer.

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 6.2 GFA-Basic compatibility

HTAB Positions the cursor to the specified column.

OUT?() output to device
INSERT Inserts an element into an array.
INT{x} Reads/writes a 2 byte signed integer from/to address x.
KEYGET n similar to INKEY$ but wait
KEYLOOK n similar to INKEY$ but putback chars
KEYTEST n similar to INKEY$
KEYPAD n Sets the usage of the numerical keypad.
KEYPRESS n This simulates the pressing of a key.
LOCATE Positions the cursor to the specified location.
LONG{x} Reads/writes a 4 byte integer from/to address x. Abbrev
LOOP UNTIL ondition extention
LOOP WHILE ondition extention
LSET var=string Puts the ’string’ in the string variable ’var’ lefft justified
MAT ADD a(),b()
MAT ADD a(),x
MAT CLR a()
MAT CPY a([i,j℄)=b([k,l℄)[,h,w℄
MAT DET x=a([i,j℄)[,n℄
MAT INPUT #i,a()
MAT INV a()=b()
MAT MUL
MAT MUL a(),x
a()=b()* ()
MAT MUL x=a()*b()
MAT MUL x=a()*b()* ()
MAT NORM a(),{0/1}
MAT ONE a()
MAT PRINT [#i℄a[,g,n℄
MAT QDET x=a([i,j℄)[,n℄
MAT RANG x=a([i,j℄)[,n℄
MAT READ a()
MAT SET a()=x
MAT SUB a(),b()
MAT SUB a(),x
MAT TRANS a()[=b()℄
MAT XCPY a([i,j℄)=b([k,l℄)[,h,w℄
MAT BASE {0/1}
MAX(x [,y,z,...℄) or MAX(a$[,y$,z$....℄)
Returns the greatest value (or largest string)
MENU(x) Returns the information about an event in the variable
MENU OFF Returns a menu title to ’normal’ display.
MENU_BAR() Displays/erases a menu bar (from a resource file)

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6 Compatibility

MENU_ICHECK() Deletes/displays a tick against a menu item.

MENU_IENABLE() Enables/disables a menu entry.
MENU_TEXT() Changes the text of a menu item.
MENU_TNORMAL() Switches the menu title to normal/inverse video.
MID$(a$,x[,y℄) (as a command)
MIN(expression [ ,expression...
Returns the℄)smallest value (or smallest string)
MODE representation of decimal point, date and files
OBJC_CHANGE() Changes the status of an object.
OBJC_EDIT() Allows input and editing
OBJC_ORDER() re-positions an object within a tree.
OB_ADR() Gets the address of an individual object.
OB_FLAGS() Gets the status of the flags for an object.
OB_H() Returns the height of an object
OB_HEAD() Points to the object’s first child
OB_NEXT() Points to the following object on the same level
OB_SPEC() Returns the address of the the data structure
OB_STATE() returns the status of an object
OB_TAIL() Points to the objects last child
OB_TYPE() Returns the type of object specified.
OB_W() Returns the width of an object
OB_X(), OB_Y() relative coordinates of the object
OCT$() value in octal form
ON BREAK influence behavior of CTRL-C
OPTION BASE determine whether an array is to contain a zero element
QSORT Sorts the elements of an array.
RCALL Calls an assembler routine
RC_INTERSECT() Detects whether two rectangles overlap.
RECALL Inputs n lines from a text file
RECORD Sets the number of the next record (GET#, PUT#)
RND as a sysvar see RND()
ROL(), ROL&(), ROL%() Rotates a bit pattern left.
ROR(), ROR&(), ROR%() Rotates a bit pattern right.
RSET a$=b$ Moves a string expression, right justified to a string.
RSRC_OBFIX() converts the coordinates of an object
RSRC_SADDR() sets the address of an object.
RUN <filname> see RUN
SETDRAW see DRAW
SHL(), SHL&(), SHL%() Shifts a bit pattern left
SHOWM Makes the mouse pointer appear.
SHR(), SHR&(), SHR%() Shifts a bit pattern left
SINGLE{x} Reads/writes a 4 byte floating point
SPRITE Puts a sprite

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 6.3 Ideas for future releases of X11-Basic

SSORT Sorts using the Shell-Metzner method.

STORE Fast save of a string array as a text file.
TOUCH Updates the date and time stamps of a file.
TRON# Tron to file
TRON pro procedure is called before the execution of each command
VARIAT() Returns the number of permutations of n elements to the kth order
VTAB positions the cursor to the specified line number
WRITE Stores data in a sequential file

Following commands have a different meaning and/or syntax in X11-Basic:

GFA-BASIC X11-Basic
SYSTEM QUIT
LINE INPUT LINEINPUT
SOUND -
VSYNC -
ON MENU MENU
ON MENU GOSUB ... MENUDEF
MENU a$() MENUDEF
MENU OFF -
MENU KILL MENUKILL
MENU() -
MONITOR SYSTEM

6.3 Ideas for future releases of X11-Basic

These are some ideas for new commands, which are not GFA-commands and which might be
implemented in X11-Basic in future:

ENCLOSE$(str[, pair℄)

En loses a string.
The default pair is ""

Example:
? en lose$("ab ","()")

Result:
(ab )
========================
LEFTOF$(s1,s2),

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6 Compatibility

RIGHTOF$(s1,s2)

Returns the left/right part

of s1 at the position of the
first o urren e of the
string s2 into string s1
========================
SPRINT var$;[USING...;℄...
PRINT anweisung, aber in var$ (Statt Print #1,...)

========================

CRSCOL n.n.
CRSLIN n.n.

========================
implemention of mmap in x11basi :

open "I",#1,"myfile"
adr%=map("I|O|U",#1,len,offset)

msyn adr%,len

unmap adr%,len
lose #1

offset should be a multiple of the page size as returned

by getpagesize(2).

"I" entspri ht PROT_READ MAP_PRIVATE

"O" entspri ht PROT_WRITE MAP_SHARED
"U" entspri ht PROT_READ PROT_WRITE MAP_SHARED

"*L" entspri ht MAP_LOCKED

428
Acknowlegements
Thanks to all people, who helped me to realize this package.
Many thanks to the developers of GFA-Basic. This basic made me start programming in
the 1980s. Many ideas and most of the command syntax has been taken from the ATARI ST
implementation.
Thanks to sourceforge.net for hosting this project on the web.
Unfortuantely derivates of the routines of the famous book "numerical recepies in C" are
not allowed to be distributed as part of the X11-Basic program. So I have not included all of
the mathematics features of X11-Basic in this distribution. (see mathemat_dummy. ). If you
own the book and have a licence you may ask me for the sources of the routines.

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6 Compatibility

430