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Original manual

Thanks to Yrrah2 from stardot, there's an OCR'd copy of the manual in the repo: BASIC_Editor_Manual.pdf.

The vast majority of the manual still applies. Differences are noted below.

General

MODE 2/5 avoidance

The editor will select MODE 135 if it finds itself starting up in a mode with less than 40 columns. It's no fun trying to work in 20 column mode!

On a Master or B+, MODE 135 is a shadow mode; on a B or Electron it's equivalent to selecting mode 7. Either way, you'll never lose any memory compared to whatever mode was initially selected.

Command mode

Command prompt

The command prompt HUD is gone. The command line shows the number of bytes free.

The other information previously shown in the HUD can be seen with INFO.

Help text

The HELP output is a bit shorter and not as nicely formatted.

RUN abbrevation

RUN can now be spelled R, which was previously the abbreviation for RENUMBER.

REM>, ZSAVE and ZRUN

The first line in the program may be a REM in the BASIC V style that specifies the file the program should be saved to:

10 REM > Filename

The line number doesn't matter (it just has to be the first line), and the spaces are optional. If it's the first line, 100REM>Filename (say) will do just as well.

You can save the program to this file using the new ZSAVE command (abbrevation Z), or save it to this file and then run it using the new ZRUN command (abbrevation ZR).

SHIFT+ESCAPE (in The BASIC Editor)

You can press SHIFT+ESCAPE at the command prompt or in edit mode to get back to BASIC.

SHIFT+ESCAPE (in BASIC)

You can press SHIFT+ESCAPE at the BASIC prompt to get back to The BASIC Editor. If you left The BASIC Editor while in edit mode, using SHIFT+ESCAPE or f9, you'll go back to edit mode again; otherwise, command mode.

This feature is off by default. Switch it on with *FX26,1, or switch it off with *FX26,0.

(This works by trapping the Escape error while BASIC is active, so you don't necessarily have to actually be at the BASIC prompt specifically! On the other hand, it is easily foiled, e.g., by *FX229,1.)

Unfortunately this feature does not (yet?) work in the second processor.

Case-insensitive search

The FIND, CHANGE and QCHANGE commands have case-insensitive equivalents: IFIND, ICHANGE and QICHANGE.

When using ICHANGE or QICHANGE, the replacement text's case is always retained.

No MODE restrictions

You can select any screen mode, not just 0-7, so additional modes (shadow RAM, alternative display drivers, etc.) are available.

The editor will switch out of a 20-column mode on startup if it detects one, but it will let you select one manually.

Edit mode

Insert mode

Insert mode is now the default.

Default colour scheme

The default colour scheme is now white on black instead of white on blue.

COPY key

The COPY key deletes forward, like SHIFT+DELETE.

SHIFT+left/right

Use SHIFT+left arrow to move the cursor to the beginning of the line, and SHIFT+right arrow to move it to just past the end.

(The previous SHIFT+left/right functionality - move cursor left/right two spaces - is gone.)

CTRL+left/right

Use CTRL+left/right arrow to move the cursor between places where you can (probably) add a new statement. The cursor stops at the beginning of a line, after a :, or just after the end of a line.

(The search is not intelligent. If there's a : in the line, it will be found, even if it's in a string or a comment.)

(The previous CTRL+left/right functionality - move cursor between lines - is replaced by the new CTRL+up/down shortcut. Not exactly the same, just very similar.)

SHIFT+f9, CTRL+f9

If the program has a REM> (see above), press SHIFT+f9 to save it from edit mode, like ZSAVE, or CTRL+f9 to save it and run it, like ZRUN.

*BZ and *BR

If the first line is a REM>, you can use *BZ to do a ZSAVE from inside BASIC, and use *BR to do a ZRUN.

Zero page promise

The BASIC Editor now explicitly promises to preserve memory between &70 and &8F inclusive, the zero page region allocated by BASIC for user routines.

The HIBASIC Editor

The HIBASIC Editor is The BASIC Editor analogue of HIBASIC: a version assembled to run at &B800 inside your 6502 Second Processor, giving you at least 50% more free memory. (45,054 bytes, to be precise, compared to the 30,718 you get with the non-HI version on a Master. Non-Master disc users will see an even greater benefit.)

Aside from all the extra memory, it's supposed to work exactly the same as The BASIC Editor.

Notes:

  • The HIBASIC Editor doesn't check to make sure you're running HIBASIC, but ideally you should be; otherwise, if your program is large enough to require The HIBASIC Editor, when you go back to BASIC, it will be overwritten...

    (On the Master 128, provided you've got HIBASIC in a ROM slot, The HIBASIC Editor seems to find it, even if it's not the language.)

  • You can have The HIBASIC Editor and The BASIC Editor installed simultaneously. Put The HIBASIC Editor in the higher-priority ROM slot; when the Tube isn't active, the ROM does basically nothing, so when you type *BE you'll get The BASIC Editor.

Electron version

The Electron version is largely identical to the BBC normal version but has had some changes to accommodate differences in the Electron's display and keyboard capabilities.

When in the editor, insert mode is indicated by a flashing cursor. Overwrite mode uses a steady cursor.

Function keys 0-9 do the same thing as they do on the BBC but you obviously have to press FUNC + number. Also note that f0 (execute) is at the other end of the row.

SHIFT and CTRL, however, cannot be used with function keys, nor COPY and the cursor keys. Instead, these functions have been remapped to FUNC + various letters and punctuation characters:

  • A - swap case (SHIFT+f3)
  • B - number (SHIFT+f7)
  • C - foreground (CTRL+f8)
  • D - previous statement (CTRL+left)
  • E - extend statement (SHIFT+f4)
  • F - next statement (CTRL+right)
  • G - goto (CTRL+f1)
  • J - join statements (CTRL+f3)
  • K - mark (CTRL+f0)
  • L - label (SHIFT+f6)
  • M - mode (SHIFT+f5) - currently unused
  • N - new (SHIFT+f0)
  • O - old (SHIFT+f1)
  • Q - scroll on (CTRL+f5)
  • R - ZRUN (CTRL+f9)
  • S - split statement (CTRL+f2)
  • T - insert at top (SHIFT+f8)
  • U - undo (SHIFT+f2)
  • V - background (CTRL+f7)
  • W - scroll off (CTRL+f6)
  • Y - repeat (CTRL+f4)
  • Z - ZSAVE (SHIFT+f9)
  • ,/< - start of line (SHIFT+left)
  • ./> - end of line (SHIFT+right)
  • :/* - screen up (SHIFT+up)
  • (slash)/? - screen down (SHIFT+down)
  • -/= - top of screen (CTRL+up)
  • ;/+ - bottom of screen (CTRL+down)

Note that these shortcuts prevent you from using FUNC + the letter keys to obtain the keyword firmkeys that you would normally get in BASIC on the Electron.

The BASIC Editor (relocatable) (MOS 3.50 only) (DIY required)

The BASIC Editor (relocatable) is an ordinary-looking sideways ROM containing The BASIC Editor. But, in conjunction with its relocation bitmap (supplied), and a bit of elbow grease (this part is up to you, sorry!), it can also act as The HIBASIC Editor when used with a 6502 second processor. Both ROMs in 1 ROM bank!

These files can be used with my tube_relocation Python 3.x script: https://github.com/tom-seddon/beeb/tree/master/bin#tube_relocation - the script will insert the relocation bitmap into a spare region in some other ROM, and update the ROM image updated to refer to it.

You should be able to make this work with standard MOS 3.50, but my refreshed MOS 3.50 versions will give you more options (and noticeably improve the relocation speed): https://github.com/tom-seddon/acorn_mos_disassembly/blob/master/docs/refresh.md

Setting this up is currently a DIY job.