Sinclair QL User manual

•
•
•
FOR SERVICE MANUALS
CONTACT:
MAURITRON TECHNICAL SERVICES
www.mauritron.co.uk
TEL: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
User Guide
Introduction
Beginner's Guide
Reference Guide
Keywords
Concepts
Applications Software
QL Quill
QLAbacus
QLArchive
QL Easel
Information

•
User Guide
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE UNPACKING
THESE
PAGES
Your QL User GUide is supplied unbound, to avoid damage in transit and to make rapid
updating
easy. In addition to this packet containing the pages ot the GUide Itself, you
should also find aring binder and then divider cards packed with your QL.
Insert the dividers
Into the binder first. The recommended order is as follows:
Position
Front
Back
Tab Label
Introduction
Beginniner's Guide
Keywords
Concepts.
QL Quill
QL Abacus
QL Archive
QL
Easel
Information
1367
This will put the divider tabs in alogical order. If you wish, you may put the sections
in adifferent orde( perhaps to put often used sections near the front; or even miss out
sections you
do not expect to use.
Now look through the pages to identify the various sections; each begins with atitle
page
with the Sinclair logo at the top. The pages within each section will be packed
in the correct orde( so be careful not to mix them up; the individual sections, howeve(
may be in adifferent order to that shown above if asection or sections have recently
been reprinted.
Once each section is placed
in the binder as you like it, thiS sheet may be discarded;
it does not form part of the GUide.

•
•
•
Sinclair Research has apolicy of constant development and improvement of their
products.
Therefore, the right is reserved to change manuals, hardware, software and
firmware
at any time and without notice.
FOR SERVICE MANUALS
CONTACT:
MAURITRON TECHNICAL SERVICES
www.mauritron.co.uk
TEL: 01844 - 351694
FAX: 01844 - 352554
OL User GUide Second Edition
Published
by Sinclair Research Limited 1984
25
Willis Road, Cambridge.
Edited
by Stephen Berry (Sinclair Research Limited)
©Sinclair
Research Limited
©Psion Limited
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London
Designed and typeset by
Keywords, Manchester
No part
of this User Guide may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the
written permission
of Sinclair Research Limited.
QL, QLUB, QL Net, Qdos and OL Microdrive
are trade marks of
Sinclair Research Limited.
Quill, Archive, Easel and Abacus are trade marks
of Psion Limited

•
•
•
©1984 SINCLAIR RESEARCH LIMITED
sinl::lair
QL
Introduction
FOR SERVICE MANUALS
CONTACT:
MAURITRON TECHNICAL SERVICES
www.mauritron.co.uk
TEL: 01844·351694
FAX: [phone]

•When you unpack your QL computer you
will find:
The QL computer
INTRODUCTION
TO THE QL
•
•
The QL User Guide
Two wallets
one of which contains:
QL Abacus
QL Archive
QL
Easel
QL Quill
and the other contains:
four blank QL Microdrive cartridges.
Three plastic feet
Apower supply
these can be fitted under the QL to tilt the keyboard for more comfortable typing. The
pips
in the top of the legs should be fitted into the holes in the rubber feet, twisting them
to make them
fit securely.
12/84

Introduction
An aerial lead •
about two metres long with different connectors at either end. It is used for connecting
your OL
to your television's aerral socket.
Anetwork lead
also about two metres long, with Identical connectors at either end. It IS used to connect
your OL
to other OLs so that data and messages can be sent between them.
A GUIDED
TOUR
On the back and sides of the computer there are a serres of connectors.
There
are two slots on the right hand side of the computer -the two OL Microdrives.
The cartrrdges
for these Microdrives are used for storing programs and data on the
OL. Next
to each slot there IS asmall light. When the light is on the Microdrrve is in
use and the cartridge should not be removed. The yellow light on the front lefthand
Side indicates whether the OL is switched on.
~==;11~9111!f II
microdrive. slots
•
Microdrive lights
power light
'=--
~~;{¥~t~"'C"""~"'···I-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-§!~
!0
On the right-hand end of the OL there is a slot covered by aplastic strip. This slot is •
for attaching up
to six more OL Microdrives. ZX Microdrives are not suitable for use
with the OL but blank Microdrive cartridges
can be used on either machine.
•
2 12/84

Introduction
-connector for the OL Network
connector for the OL Network
power supply for the computer
connection
to amonochrome or colour monitor
connection
to the aerial socket of atelevision set
RS-232-C serial port
RS-232-C serial port
control port for
Joystick
control port for Joystick
OL ROM cartridge software (use reversed one to 10)
NET
NET
POWER -
RGB
UHF
SER1
SER2
CTL1
CTL2
ROM
The connectors at the back of the computer are for attaching the following:
•
•
Peripheral ~
expansion slot
F:t:;.,'-- reset button
Mlcrodrrve expansion slot
The slot on the left-hand side of the OL is used for adding peripherals (equipment to
expand the computer's capabilities) to the OL, One peripheral can be plugged directly
Into the expansion slot
The
reset button IS on the right-hand end of the computer near the Mlcrodrlve expansion
slot
It IS used to 'reset' the OL to its Original 'switch on' state, Any programs in the machine
will be lost If reset is pressed and sometimes data already recorded on Microdrlve
cartridges can be corrupted, Use reset with caution and always remove Microdrive
cartridges before doing
so,
To make the computer operate, various connections have to be made:
Your OL power supply has two leads, One is fitted w'lth asmall rectangular connector
With three holes in it The other is the mains lead and is supplied with bare ends to
which asUitable mains plug must be fitted,
SETIING UP
THE POWER
SUPPLY
•Please do not connect the power supply lead to the computer until all other leads
and peripherafs have been connected, Always connect the power supply lead to the
computer last of all.
Connect the mains plug
as follows:
•The blue wire goes
to the terminal marked Nor neutral, or coloured blue or
black,
•The brown wire goes
to the terminal marked L or live and coloured brown or red.
•The power supply is double insulated and does not need an earth connection.
•
If you are using afused plug, it must be fitted with athree amp fuse.
•Make sure all connections are sound.
If necessary, get someone with electrical experience to help you.
Although the OL
will work once the power supply is connected, you will not be able THE DISPLAY
to see what it is doing until you add atelevision set or amonitor.
Amonitor has ascreen like atelevision, but
it cannot receive television signals. It usually
has better resolution than atelevision set and
so can display more text and is therefore
more expensive.
Acolour television or monitor
will of course be required to make use of the OL:s colour
display, but the computer
will work perfectly well In black and white, representing colours
as shades of
grey.
12/84 3

IntrodJction
Most television sets In current use will be suitable for the OL provided they are able
to receive 625 line UHF transmissions, ie. BBC2 and Channel 4.
Locate the aerial socket at the back of your TV and remove the aerial cable that may
be plugged into It
If your set has more than one socket, use the one labelled UHF
or
625. Plug in the OLs aerial lead. Use the end that looks similar to the onginal aerial
plug, and plug the other end into the socket marked UHF
on the back of the computer.
Plug the power supply into amains socket and switch
on. Remove any cartridges from
the Microdrive
slots and push the small power supply connector into the three pin plug
marked
POWER on the back of the OL. The yellow power light below the F5 key should
now be glowing and your
set up should look like thiS:
•
Television
UHF
POWER
OL •
When the computer has been on for awhile, the case above the Microdrives will feel
warm; this is quite normal. The OL has no on/off switch but can be turned off by
unplugging the power supply connector. Remember that any program
or data in the
machine will
be lost when it is turned off and should first be saved on aMicrodrive
cartridge
(for details of how to do this see the Beginner's Guide and Concept sections).
If the OL is not going to be used for awhile you should also switch the power supply
off
at the mai ns.
TUNING IN The display signal to the television set is near channel 36. If your set has continuous
tuning, tune
to channel 36. If your television has push buttons, choose an unused button
and tune this
to the computer's signal. You may need to consult your dealer or the TV
instruction manual to find out how to do this.
Once you are correctly tuned in you should see the copyright screen.
Sinctai r Research
The Copyright Screen
•
4
The OL doesn't use television sound because it has its own internal loudspeaker. You •
can turn the television volume down if you wish.
12/84

Introduction
•
•
Acoloured pattern will appear aKer you switch on or reset the computer; this is the QL
testing its memory. The pattern will disappear after a few seconds to be replaced by
the copyright screen.
If you cannot get apicture at all, first check that your television can receive the normal
broadcast stations.
If it can then try the computer with another television set
If you get afuzzy or indistinct picture check that you are tuned in correctly; It may be
possible
to pick up the computer's signal in more than one place in the tuning range.
Also check that the aerial lead
is firmly plugged in, and that you are using the correct
socket on your television set
(if It has more than one).
It you wish to use amonitor instead of atelevision set. the connections will depend on
whether it is colour or monochrome; details can be found in the Concepts section under
the heading Monitor. Amonitor lead with aplug
to fit the QLs RGB socket IS available
from Sinclair Research. The order torm is in the Information section of this guide.
The QL needs
to know if you are using amonitor or atelevision set. Press
[Ej] tor amonitor
or
I F21 for atelevision.
Microdrive 1
will run briefly and the red Mlcrodrive light will glow; the QL IS looking for
programs
to load and run (this can be ignored for now). The computer will start up and
display
its cursOr aflashing coloured square, and the computer is now ready to accept
commands.
Unlike previous Sinclair computers there
is no single keyword entry on the QL. However,
various keys and groups of keys have special meanings:
The ENTER
key is used to indicate to the computer that you want it to do something.
Perhaps you have typed
in acommand and want the computer to execute it, or you
may want to tell the computer that you have finished typing In data.
USING THE QL
KEYBOARD
Enter
Shift
•
The keyboard has two SHIFT keys which perform the same function. Pressing SHIFT
and an alphabetic
key together will generate capital letters (upper case characters). On
non-alphabetic
keys SHIFT Will cause the upper engraved character to be generated.
For example:
ISHIFTI&[§] will give %
Pressing the CAPS LOCK
key once will force alphabetic keys to generate capital letters Caps Lock
regardless of whether the SHIFT key is pressed. This will remain in effect until CAPS
LOCK
is pressed again.
Hold down the CTRL
key and then press the B key. The character to the leK ot the Delete
cursor will disappear and the cursor will move to the left. Hold down CTRL and press
the G
key. The cursor will not move; the character it was on will disappear and text
to the right will move to fill the gap.
The
QL screen may be divided into different areas, or windows, at will. Once you have THE SCREEN
switched on (or reset) and pressd F1 or F2, the screen will look like this:
12/84
Monitor
2
o to 511
o
o
to
256
Television
o to 511
&2
o
5

6
The long thin window at the bottom IS used to display commands typed Into the computer
and Initially will display the flashing cursor. When the cursor
is visible the OL is ready
to accept commands or data; it disappears when the computer is busy. ki you type,
the cursor
will move along the line showing where the next character to be typed will
appear.
If the machine ever fails to respond correctly or you want to force aSuperBASIC program
to stop, hold down the CTRL key and press the space bar.
The computer should then display its cursor If this doesn't work remove any M,crodrlve
cartridges and then press
reset.
The message Bad Line appearing In the command window means that the computer
doesn't understand acommand that you have typed
In. Delete or correct the line uSing
the cursor keys.
MICRODRIVES The two OL Microdrlves are called mdv1_ on the left and mdv2_ on the right.
Cartridges must be placed correctly into the Microdrlves. Hold the cartridge by the ribbed
plastic handle and remove
it from its protective cover. The cartridge's name label, or
the recess for
its stick-on label, should face upwards.
Cartridges should always be treated with
care. You should never turn the OL on or off
with acartridge in the Microdrives. Take care when Inserting or removing cartridges;
wait
until the Microdrive lights have gone out before removing the cartridge, be gentle
but firm. Never touch the tape
in the cartridge and always return the cartridge to its
protective cover.
Before ablank cartridge can be used it must go through aprocess called formatting.
This process erases any data
or programs on acartridge so always be sure that all
cartridges are clearly labelled with their contents and check that cartridges to be
formatted contain no useful data. Instructions
for formatting cartridges are conlained
in the Information section.
All magnetic storage media including Microdrive cartridges eventually suffer from wear.
Hence it is strongly recommended that all important programs and data should be
stored on at least two cartridges, that is 'backed up'. This means that
If acartridge
is damaged and the data lost then at least part of the data can be recovered from the
relevant back up cartridge.
If you are continually adding data to acartridge it must be
backed up often; unless you
do so you will lose everything that was added since the
last backup
if the main cartridge is damaged. Instructions for backing up cartridges
are contained In the Information section.
STARTING WORK There are several ways of using your computer and the User GUide. You can use ready
made programs such
as those supplied With the OL, or you can write your own programs
in SuperBASIC.
To use the OL programs, first read the Introduction to the OL Programs later In this
Introduction and then the relevant section for each program concerned.
If you are anewcomer to computing and wish to write your own programs, you should
read the Beginners Guide.
If you are familiar With BASIC programming, you may prefer
to read from Chapter 8 In the Beginners Guide -From BASIC to SuperBASIC This
chapter
deSCribes the mafOr differences between BASICs you may already be familiar
with and OL SuperBASIC. Alternatively,
If you are feeling confident. the Keywords and
Concepts sections should be useful.
12/84
•
•
•
•

•
•
If you have aproblem using your OL or OL programs, then:
1Refer
to the appropriate sections in the OL User Guide.
2Consider
JOining the OL Users' Bureau for assistance on the OL programs. Full
details of the services offered by OLUB and instructions for Joining are contained
In the Information sedon of the OL User Guide under the heading QLUB
3Refer to books published about the OL
if your problems persist and
you think they may be caused by afault In either
your OL or
in the OL program cartridges then refer to the Guarantee details
in the Information section of the OL User Guide.
Introduction
IF YOU HAVE
A PROBLEM
•FOR SERVICE MANUALS
CONTACT:
MAURITRON TECHNICAL SERVICES
www.mauritron.co.uk
TEL: 01844·351694
FAX: 01844·352554
12.184
7

This Introduction outlines the four programs supplied with the QL and describes their
common
features.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE QL
PROGRAMS
•
The four programs are:
QL Quill - a wordprocessor
QL Abacus - A spreadsheet
QL Archive - a database
QL
Easel - a graphics program
Individual sections
in this guide describe each of the four programs In detail. Don't Just
read them - tryout the examples and experiment with each new idea.
MICRODRIVES Before you use any of the QL programs you should make at least one backup on a
blank cartridge and
use this copy only. Keep he original program cartridge in a safe
place, and use It only for making copies. Any accidents will not then cause permanent
loss
of your programs.
Each QL program has a bUilt In duplicating routine which IS used as follows:
•Place the master cartridge In Mlcrodrive 2 •
•Place the blank cartridge, or one containing nothing that
you Wish to keep, In
Microdrlve 1. Type
l run mdv2 cLone
• Press the ENTER key and the screen will display the message
FORMAT mdv1_ type space to continue
•
Press the space bar only when you are sure that the cartridge contains
nothing that
you Wish to keep, as everything on it will be erased. The
computer
will tormat the cartridge and will then copy the program in sections,
displaying the name
of each one as it does so.
• Walt until the Microdrive lights go out betore removing the master cartridge
from Microdrive
1.
LOADING You should never use any of the original program cartridges except when making a
copy onto ablank cartridge.
All the programs are loaded similarly. There are two ways of dOing this:
Without cartridges In the Microdrives, press reset. Place your copy of the program •
cartridge
in Microdrive 1, and then press either F1 or F2 as prompted. Mlcrodrive 1
will automatically run and after ashort pause a title display will appear on the screen
to confirm that the program is being loaded. Once the program is loaded into the
computer the program
will start up by itself.
When you become more tamiliar with the programs and when using aprinter or the
network, you will sometimes find that commands need to be given to the computer before
the programs
start. You cannot switch off or reset the computer in this instance because
your commands would
be lost. Instead place the program cartridge in Mlcrodrive 1and
type
8
SCREEN LAYOUT
lrun mdv1 boot
press ENTER and loading will proceed as before.
In both cases the program will occasionally need to load extra intormation trom the
Microdrive
so keep the program cartridge in the Mlcrodrive slot until the program has
finished.
The control area at the top of the screen will guide you through each program by
displaying the options that
you will need most often and prompting you further if
necessary. In many cases the program will suggest asuitable answer when it asks for
information.
Press ENTER to accept this suggestion or simply type in your own answer
and the computer's suggestion
will disappear
12/84
•

•
Introduction
Pressing F2 will remove this area and will make the central area larger Pressing F2
again will restore the control area.
The central area of
the screen shows the intormatlon that you are working on, for example,
the text at adocument, the contents ot acard Index, agraph, or financial forecast
It
is shown in the style most sUitable for the particular application.
The bottom of the screen shows the input line where, for example, commands that you
type
In are displayed.
Below this
is the status area which reports on the current state of work. It displays things
like the name
of the data or document on which you are working, how much unused
memory remains,
etc.
Three of the five function keys have the same meaning In all the OL programs. These are FUNCTION KEYS
The remaining two function keys are used for actions particular to each program.
The
first option, displayed at the top left of the control area, indicates that help is available HELP
by pressing F1.
When you ask for HELP there will be ashort pause before the display changes to show
the Help information.
Help will suggest other topics for which help
is available. Type the name of fhe tOPiC
and press ENTER. You do not need to type in the whole name, just enough characters
for it to be distinguished from the other topics.
You can repeat this as many times
as necessary.
Pressing ENTER without selecting atopic
will take you out to the prevIous level. ESC
will take you right out of HELP and back into the program.
Help is always available, provided that the program cartridge
is in Microdrive 1. Press
F1 and the most appropriate Help information will be displayed.
You can use the line editor to change or correct aline of text that you have typed in. THE LINE EDITOR
All the OL programs use the same line editor, but each program uses it In a way most
suitable for that application.
In OL Oill you use the line editor, for example, for editing
the text
in commands and OL Archive uses the editor extensively for editing database
programs.
The line editor uses the four cursor
keys, together with the CTRL and SHIFT keys.
•
•
Key
F1
F2
F3
Function
request help
remove or restore the control area
call
up the commands for selection
Keys
SHIFT & ~
SHIFT & ~
CTRL & ~
CTRL &
CTRL &i
CTRL &t
SHIFT &CTRL &~
SHIFT &CTRL & ~
12/84
Action
Move the cursor one character
to the left
Move the cursor one character to the right
Move the cursor one word
to the left
Move the cursor one word
to the right
Delete the character
to the left of the cursor
Delete the character under the cursor
Delete the line
to the left of the cursor
Delete the line
to the right of the cursor
Delete the word
to the left of the cursor
Delete the word to the right of the cursor
9

IntroductIOn
The &symbol indicates that the first key should be held down while the second is pressed.
When SHIFT and CTRL are used together then hold them both down before pressing
the cursor
key.
MICRODRIVE USE The program is loaded from the cartndge In Microdnve. You must always make sure
that before using Help or
uSing aprint command that this cartndge is In Microdnve 1.
Otherwise you can remove the cartndge at any time.
Use acartndge in Microdnve 2 - and in additional Mlcrodnves - for stonng information,
for example,
OUIII documents, Archive data files, etc.
FILE NAMES Information can be stored on acartndge In a 1ile: The file must be given a file name
to distinguish it from others on the cartndge. Use a file name of not more than eight
characters long, without spaces.
It IS agood idea to use aname which descnbes the
contents of a
file; for Instance, 'sales' is obviously abetter name for a file of sales figures
than
1red:
File saving and loading will use adata cartridge which IS assumed to be In Mlcrodrive
2unless adifferent dnve number
IS given The simplest way of replying to a file name
request
is Just to type in the name by itself; for example:
saLes
which automatically accesses Mlcrodnve 2. If you wanted to access Mlcrodrive 1, you
would type:
mdv1 saLes
There is athird component of a file name which you do not usually see, because it
is automatically added by the program. This is an extension, three letters long which
identifies which program saved the
file. The extensions used are:
OL Ouill ~doc
OL Abacus _aba
OL Easel _grf
OL Archive (data file) _dbf
OL Archive (program file) _prg or _pro
OL Archive (screen layout) _scn
If ycu want to transfer information between programs, aspecial file is generated with
the extension
_exp (for export). All the programs will recognise this extension. More
Information on this process
is contained In the Information section under the heading
QL Program-Import and Export.
You can direct pnnter output to a file instead of to a printer, so that you can pnnt the
text later
ThiS file has the extension _lis.
LISTING FILES In all the programs except Archive you can request a list of the file names on acartridge
whenever acommand needs a
file name. ThiS is useful if you cannot remember the
exact name that
you gave to the file when you first saved It
Every time the program
IS waiting for you to type In a file name, you have the following
options:
Press ENTER
to accept the name the program suggests
Type In the file name followed by ENTER
Press? followed by ENTER for a
list of the files on Microdrive 2
If you type in aquestion mark (and ENTER) instead of the file name, the program
displays
•
•
•
10
mdv2
suggesting that it should list the files on Microdrive 2. You can accept this suggestion
or
you can edit the drive specifier to refer to adifferent Microdnve (mdv1_) and then
press ENTER
to list the files. When the list IS complete the program asks you to type
in the file name.
ArChive does not use this method. Instead there
is acommand (dir) which lists the files. •
It allows you to type in mdv1_, mdv2_ and so on, to specify the drive for which the
list of files IS needed.
12/84

•
•
•
Introductbn
In general, ESC cancels the current action and will restore you to asensible pOint In ESCAPE
the program. You can also use ESC to cancel any numbers or text that you have typed
into the input line or abort apartially completed command.
Data can be loaded and
saved on other devices besides aMlcrodrive. The device is OTHER DEVICES
specitied in the standard SuperBASIC way except that the device name is preceded
by
an underscore (_). See the devices entry in the Concept Reference Guide.
For example, to load and save via the network:
Before loading aOL program, each computer on the network must
be given a station
number Switch the computer on but do not insert aprogram cartridges; press F1 or
F2 when prompted.
To set the station number type the command NET followed by the station number of
your choice. For example, to set the OL to station 5type the command
NET 5 IENTER I
Place the program cartridge in Microdnve 1and load the program by typing
1 run mdv1_boot [ENTERI
Once the program is running, you can receive data sent along the network by typing
the load command
in the normal way. If the data was being sent by station 12, you
would enter
LOAD net; 12
This must be done before station 12 starts sednlng.
To send data, type in the save command. Assuming you were sending to station 23,
you would enter
SAVE net a23
Station 23 must be ready to receive before you press ENTER
FOR SERVICE MANUALS
CONTACT;
MAURITRON TECHNICAL SERVICES
www.mauritron.co.uk
TEL: 01844 ·351694
FAX; 01844 .352554
12184
11

•
•
•
Eiinclair
QL
Beginner's Guide
©SINCLAIR RESEARCH LIMITED
by Roy Atherton (Bulmershe College Computer Centre)

Your OL should be connected to amonitor screen or TV set and switched on. Press
a few keys, say abc, and the screen should appear as shown below The small flashing
light is called the cursor.
CHAPTER 1
STARTING
COMPUTING
THE SCREEN
Monitor
TeleviSion
If your screen does not look like this read the section entitled Introduction. This should
enable you
to solve any difficulties
The OL IS a versatile and powerful computer, so there are features of the keyboard which THE KEYBOARD
you do not need yet. For the present we will explain Just those Items which you need
for this and the next
six chapters.
This enables
you to 'break' out of situations you do not like. For example; BREAK
aline which you have decided to abandon
something wrong which
you do not understand
arunning program which has ceased
to be of interest
any other problem
Because BREAK
is so powerful it has been made difficult to type accidentally
Hold down ICTRL Iand then press ISPACE I
If nothing was added or removed from aprogram while it was halted with BREAK then
it can be restarted by typing:
CONTI NUE
This is not a key but asmall push button on the right hand side of the OL It is placed RESET
here deliberately, out of the way, because its effects are more dramatic than the break
keys. If you cannot achieve what you need With the break keys then press the RESET
button. This is almost the same as switching the computer off and on again. You get
aclean
re-start.
SHIFT
12/84

There are two SHIFT keys because they are used frequently and need to be available •
to either hand.
Hold down one SHIFT
key and type some letter keys. You will get upper case
(capital)
letters.
Hold down one SHIFT key and type some other key, not aletter You will get a
symbol
in an upper position on the key.
Without aSHIFT key you get lower case (small) letters or asymbol In alower position
on a
key.
CAPITALS LOCK
•
This key works like aswitch. Just press It once and only the letter keys will be 'locked'
into aparticular mode -upper case or lower
case.
Type some letter keys.
Type the CAPS LOCK key once
Type some letter keys.
You will see that the mode changes and remains until you type the CAPS LOCK key
again.
SPACE BAR
•
2
RUBBING OUT
The long key at the bottom ot the keyboard gives spaces. This is avery important key
in SuperBASIC as you will see In chapter two.
The left cursor together with the CTRL key acts like arubber. You must hold down the •
CfRL key while you press the cursor key. Each time you then both together the previous
character is deleted.
12/84

•
The system needs to know when you have typed acomplete message or instruction.
When
you have typed something complete such as RUN you type the ENTER key
to enter It Into the system for action.
Because this
key is needed so often we have used a speCial symbol for It:
We shall use thiS for convenience, better presentation, and to save space. Test the ."
(ENTER) key by typing:
ENTER
•PRINT
"Correct" .. "
If you made no mistakes the system will respond with:
Correct
c:J
Q
OTHER KEYBOARD
multiply add
SYMBOLS OF
[J
c:J
IMMEDIATE USE
underscore becomes equal to (used
in LET)
Dquotes Dapostrophe
D
comma
0exclamation
Dsemi colon 0ampersand
•Dcolon Ddecimal point or full stop
c=J
backslash 0dollar
0left bracket [2] right bracket
SuperBASIC recognises commands (keywords) whether
they are In upper or lower case.
For example the SuperBASIC command to clear the screen IS CLS and can be typed
In as:
CLS"'II
Cls""
c1S"'11
UPPER AND LOWER
CASE
These are all correct and have the same effect. Some keywords are displayed partly
in upper case to show allowed abbreviations. Where akeyword cannot be abbreviated
it is displayed completely in upper case.
The usual use of quotes is to define aword or sentence - a string of characters. Try: USE OF QUOTES
PRINT "Th; s works" ..."
The computer will respond with:
This works
12184
3

Starting Computing
The quotes are not printed but they indicate that some text is to be printed and they •
define exactly what
it It is -everything between the opening and closing quote marks.
If you wish to use the quote symbol itself in astring of characters then the apostrophe
symbol can be used instead.
For example:
PRINT 'The quote symboL is II I
will work and will print
The quote symboL; s "
KEEP SHIFT DOWN When using aSHIFT key hold It down while you type the other key so that the SHIFT
key makes contact before the other key and also remains in contact until after the other
key has lifted.
The same rule applies
to the control CTRL and alternate ALT keys which are used in
conjunction with others but you do not need those at present
Type the two simple Instructions:
4
COMMON TYPING
ERRORS
The zero key IS with the other numeric digits at the top of the keyboard. and is slightly
thinner.
The letter '0'
key is amongst the other letters. Be careful to use the right symbol.
Similarly avoid confusion between
one, amongst the digits, and the letter 'I' amongst
the
letters.
CLS.II
PRINT 'HeLLo'."
Strictly speaking these constitute acomputer program, however, it is the stored program
that
IS important in computing. The above instructions are executed instantly as you type
.. "(ENTER).
Now type the program with line numbers:
10 CLS."
20 PRINT 'HELLO'."
This time nothing happens externally except that the program appears In the upper part
of the screen.
ThiS means that it is accepted as correct grammar or syntax. It conforms
to the rules of SuperBASIC, but it has not yet been executed, merely stored. To make
it work, type:
RUN_I
The distinction between direct commands for immediate action and astored sequence
of instructions
is discussed in the next chapter. For the present you can experiment with
the above ideas and two more:
causes
an internally stored program to be displayed (listed) on the screen or elsewhere.
causes
an internally stored program to be deleted so that you can type in a NEW one.
12184
•
•
•