NSB8 Datasheet, PDF (125/158 Pages) List of Unclassifed Manufacturers – BASIC interpreter for Z80 family

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COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER BASICS
This section provides some information which may be useful to you if you are attempting to convert
programs into NSB8 from other versions of BASIC.
STRING HANDLING
The operations and functions used to access strings and substrings often differ widely between
different versions of the BASIC language. Section USING STRINGS details the system implemented
in NSB8, where substring access is achieved through string name subscripting. However, some
BASIC systems use the so called “mid left right” convention, where access to substrings is made
possible by the three built in string functions MID$, LEFT$, and RIGHT$. Programs which use this
method of substring access will have to be modified to reflect NSB8 conventions. In general:
OTHER BASICS
LEFT$(X$,L)
RIGHT$(X$,R)
MID$(X$,L,N)
is the same as
is the same as
is the same as
NSB8
X$(1,L)
X$(LEN(X$)-R+1)
X$(L,L+N-1)
ARRAY OF STRINGS
Some versions of BASIC implement arrays of strings with the syntax which is used for substring
referencing in NSB8. An array of strings may be achieved in NSB8 by partitioning a string variable
into fixed length substrings. For example, an array of N strings, each of maximum length L would
be dimensioned as:
10 DIM A$(N*L)
and the J^th string element (where J extends from 0 to N-1) would be accessed using:
A$(J*L+1,(J+1)*L)
STRING DECLARATIONS
In NSB8, all strings longer than 10 characters must be explicitly declared in a program’s dimension
statements. Strings may be dimensioned to any length desired, to the limit of available computer
memory. Some other BASICs do not require that string variables be dimensioned before use, but may
set a small upper limit on the maximum length of strings which may be used in a program.
INPUT TRANSLATION
Certain characters, when they are typed into NSB8, are automatically translated into other
characters. This is done to help minimize the effort of converting programs written for other BASIC
systems into NSB8. This conversion is not performed upon text within quoted strings. The following
chart summarizes the translation process.
NSB8
Rel. 5.10
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