+- Discussion Forum for all things Microbee (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum)
+-- Forum: Microbee Forum (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: Repository Additions (https://microbeetechnology.com.au/forum/forum-3.html)
+--- Thread: Microbee Basic Software Hackers Handbook & Extended BASIC disk (/thread-717.html)
Microbee Basic Software Hackers Handbook & Extended BASIC disk - ChickenMan - 08-10-2023
From my recent purchase of Microbee material there was a book titled Microbee Basic Software Hackers Handbook which also contained a disk of Extended BASIC inside the front cover. The disk was a standard Microbee 5.25" DS40 disk thats auto-booting and with no copy protection. The disk imaged 100% error free on a Floppyio. The handbook was A4 in size and 173 pages long and written by Nigel Cottrill in 1987.
This handbook should be of some help in using the basic
subroutines in your own machine code programs which run
under Microbee basic.
The TABLE OF CONTENTS of the Handbook is -
1. Command Input
1.1. Input
1.2. Compression
2. Interpretation
3. Input Output
4. High level Input Output
5. Expression Evaluation
6. The Arithmetic Stack
7. For ... Next loops
8. Gosub ... return loops
9. Storage Standards
9.1. Storage of program lines
9.2. Storage of Microbee Variables
9.2.1. Storage of Integer Variables
9.2.2. Storage of Real Variables
9.2.3. Storage of String Variables
9.2.4. Storage of Arrays
10. Basic Memory allocation Disk Basic
11. Basic Disk Scratch Area
12. Data tables in Basic
12.1. Floating point constants stored within the interp
12.2. Initial Basic Scratch values- 8COH .. 8FFH
12.3. Initial Basic Scratch values- 80H .. E3H
13. Special key values
14. Basic Tokens for keywords, ver 6.22e
15. Machine code wrinkles
16. Flowcharts of important subroutines
16.1. Flowchart of COMPRESSLINE
16.2. Flowchart of ENDSTATEMENT
16.3. Flowchart of INTRPPROGLIN
16.4. Flowchart of INTRPSTATMNT
16.5. Flowchart of ENDPROGLINE
16.6. Flowchart of READYMODE
17. Disassembly of COMPRESSLINE 8173H
18. Disassembly of EXPANDLINE 82FAH
<---TABLE OF APPENDICES--->
1. Microworld Basic ver 6.22e Cross Reference
2. Notes on subroutines
3. Microworld Basic List of Differences
4. Computer in a book BIOS CP/M 2.20
5. Hex dump of differences between versions 5.22e and 6.22e
Only 2. Notes on subroutines was included in the Appendices unfortunately.
The disk auto-boots to BASIC 6.22e. To start Extended Basic, you type in RUNM "EXTEND2.MCL" and you are quickly presented with Extended BASIC ver 4.2 by Nigel Cottrill -
before arriving at a READY prompt. There are a number of short Demo MWB programs on the disk. Load them and list them before running to see how very different the code is compared to normal MWB Basic files. The ASM code for Extended Basic is also included on the disk.
So in the MbeeTech Repository in the Microbee/Documentation/Manuals/Software folder we placed
the_microbee_basic_software_hackers_handbook.pdf
extended_basic_ds40.dsk <-- in Software/Applications folder
extended_basic.jpg <-- in Documentation/Pictures\/Disks/5.25_inch folder