Atari 800 Basic Reference Manual

SPECIAL
NOTATIONS
USED IN THIS
MANUAL
Ifthe screen displays an ERROR-4 (Too Many Variables) message, use the follow -
ing procedure to make room for new variable names:
LIST f i 1 eSPec
I'£~J
ENTER f i 1 esPec
The LIST filespec writes the untokenized version of the program onto a disk or
cassette. NEW clears the program and the table areas. The program is then re-
entered, re-tokenized, and a new variable table is built . (The tokenized version
is Atari BASIC's internal format. The untokenized versions in ATASCII
which is the version displayed on the screen).
Arrays and Array Variables: An array is a list of places where data can be
filed for future use. Each of these places is called an element, and the whole array
or any element is an array variable. For example, define "Array A" as having 6
elements. These elements are referred to by the use of subscripted va riables
such as A(2), A(3), A(4), etc. A number can be stored in each element. This
may be accomplished element by element (using the LET statement), or as a part
of a FOR/NEXT loop (see Chapter 8).
Note: Never leave blanks between the element number in parentheses and the
name ofthe array.
Correct
A(23)
ARRAY(3)
X123(38)
Incorrect
A
ARRAY
X123
(23)
(3)
(38)
Line Format: The format of a line in a BASIC program includes a line number
(abbreviated to lineno) at the beginning of the line , followed by a statement
keyword, followed by the body of the statement and ending with a line ter-
minator command (Wi!li13key). In an actual program, the four elements might
look like this:
Line Number
100
STATEMENT
Keyword
PRINT
Body
A/X * (Z + 4 . 567)
Terminator
l;ljilt;t:•
Several statements can be typed on the same line provided they are separated by
co lons (:). See IF/THEN in Section 5, and Section 11.
Capital Letters: In this book, denote keywords to be typed by the user in up-
per case form exactl y as the y are printed in this text. Reverse-video characters
will not work except in the case of the RUN command. Here are a few ex-
amples:
PRINT
INPUT LIST END
GOTO
GO S UB FOR NEXT
IF
Lower Case Letters: In this manual, lower case letters are used to denote the
various classes of items which may be used in a program, suc h as variables
(var) , expressions (exp), and the like . The abbreviations used for these classes of
items are shown in Table 1.1.
General Information 3

Atari 800 Specifications

General

Brand	Atari
Model	800
Category	Desktop
Language	English