BASIC(1)

Series 200, 300, and 500 Only

NAME

basic − Technical BASIC interpreter

SYNOPSIS

basic[-t]

Remarks:

This command requires installation of optional Technical BASIC software (not included with the standard HP-UX operating system) before it can be used.

DESCRIPTION

This command invokes the HP-UX Technical BASIC interpreter which can be used to execute BASIC commands or run BASIC programs.

The BASIC SHELL command is used when you need to temporarily exit the BASIC environment and spawn a new Bourne shell, from which you can execute any number of HP-UX commands. To terminate the shell and return to BASIC, type CTRL-D.

The following option is recognized:

-t causes the BASIC interpreter to operate in non-line-oriented mode. (Using this option only makes sense when running BASIC on a line-oriented terminal, since all other consoles and terminals will automatically run in non-line-oriented mode. See "line-oriented terminal" in the Glossary of the HP-UX Technical BASIC Reference Manual if you are not sure whether or not your terminal is line-oriented.)

There are two situations in which this mode is useful:

1. When you are using BASIC program lines or commands that exceed the width of a single line on the terminal screen (usually 80 characters). Refer to the "Line Length" discussion in the Introduction section of the HP-UX Technical BASIC Reference Manual for further information about entering lines longer than the width of the screen.

2. When data-overrun errors occur during relatively high system use that are caused by a serial interface that has only a single-character buffer. Such interfaces lose occasional characters because they have insufficient buffer character space. This type of error does not occur when using interfaces that are equipped with multiple-character buffers such as the Series 200/300 Datacomm Interface or Series 500 ASI card.

FILES

/usr/bin/basic the BASIC interpreter.

/usr/bin/makebin_c a shell script used for creating C binaries (binaries are routines that are written in another language but which can be called from BASIC).

/usr/lib/bcrt0.o used when creating C binaries.

/usr/bin/makebin_p a shell script used for creating Pascal binaries.

/usr/lib/bprt0.o a file that is used when creating Pascal binaries.

/usr/bin/makebin_f a shell script used for creating FORTRAN binaries.

/usr/lib/bfrt0.o a file that is used when creating FORTRAN binaries.

/usr/lib/libb.a (Series 200/300 only) a library that is used instead of libc.a when creating binaries.

/usr/lib/examples/basic/get_started/*
demonstration programs that are discussed in the HP-UX Technical BASIC Getting Started manual.

BUGS

Depending on system load, some characters may be missing from the start-up message (Basic ready 1.0) or termination message (Exiting Basic). This should not happen on single-user systems or on multi-user systems where only one person is currently using the system.

Hewlett-Packard Company — May 11, 2021

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