NSB8 Datasheet, PDF (126/158 Pages) List of Unclassifed Manufacturers – BASIC interpreter for Z80 family

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[
]
: (colon)
; (semi colon)
becomes
becomes
becomes
becomes
Thus, the line input as
10 PRINT A$(3,4); : LET A$(3,4)=”HI”
becomes
10 PRINT A$(3,4); \ LET A$(3,4)=”HI”
ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY
(
)
\ (backslash)
, (comma)
BCD ARITHMETIC
NSB8 uses the BCD (binary coded decimal) system for implementing floating point arithmetic (as
opposed to binary integer arithmetic in some BASICs, and straight binary floating methods in
others.)
Within the limits of its precision (8 digits in the standard version), NSB8’s BCD method is the most
accurate method of arithmetic computation available on microcomputers today. Other floating point
arithmetic methods exhibit binary conversion error which introduces strange and sometimes
frustrating inaccuracies into numeric computations because of an internal conversion of numbers
from decimal (base 10) to binary (base 2).
It is impossible, using straight binary methods, to represent with complete accuracy many common
and precise decimal fractions, such as .1! You might assume that 10*.1 = 1. Using NSB8’s accurate
BCD arithmetic, it always does. However, under other methods, 10*.1 frequently does not equal
exactly 1!
IF ... THEN EVALUATION
Other BASICs handle the results of IF ... THEN evaluation differently than NSB8 when the IF
statement precedes others on a multiple statement program line. In NSB8, when the IF condition is
FALSE, the THEN part is skipped and execution continues with the following statement in the
program text. The following statement may come after the IF statement on the same program line,
or, when the IF is at the end of a program line, the first statement on the next line is used as the
following statement. Thus, the program:
10 A=0 \ B=0
20 IF A<>0 THEN A=7 \ B=7
30 PRINT B
will yield 7 as output. In contrast, other BASICs may ignore the rest of line 20 when the IF condition
is found to be FALSE, and will skip ahead to the following program line, bypassing the assignment
to B in line 20 so that the output becomes 0. With these other BASICs, execution always skips to the
following program line when the condition is FALSE. The remainder of the line, if any, is executed
only when the condition evaluates to TRUE.
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NSB8
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