Sinclair BASIC tokenized file

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Sinclair BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language created by by Nine Tiles Networks Ltd and used in the 8-bit home computers from Sinclair Research and Timex Sinclair.

The original 4KB version was developed for the Sinclair ZX80, followed by an 8KB version for the ZX81 and 16 KB version for ZX Spectrum.

Some unusual features of the Sinclair BASIC:

  • There were keys on the keyboard for each BASIC keyword. For example, pressing P caused the entire command PRINT to appear. Some commands needed multiple keypresses to enter, For example, BEEP was keyed by pressing CAPS SHIFT plus SYMBOL SHIFT to access extended mode, keeping SYMBOL SHIFT held down and pressing Z.
  • When programs where SAVEd, the file written to disk or tape contained all of BASIC's internal state information, including the values of any defined basic variables, as well as the BASIC tokens.

BASIC File Layout

On a ZX81 , a saved BASIC file is a snapshot of the computer memory from memory location 16393 through to the end of the variable table. There is no header.

16436||FRAMES||Counts the frames displayed on the television. Bit 15 is 1. Bits 0 to 14 are decremented for each frame set to the television. This can be used for timing, but PAUSE also uses it. PAUSE resets to 0 bit 15, & puts in bits 0 to 14 the length of the pause. When these have been counted down to zero, the pause stops. If the pause stops because of a key depression, bit 15 is set to 1 again.
Address Name Description
16393 VERSN 0 Identifies ZX81 BASIC in saved programs.
16394 E_PPC Number of current line (with program cursor).
16396 D_FILE Pointer to the start of the 'Display file', i.e. what is being displayed on screen
16398 DF_CC Address of PRINT position in display file. Can be poked so that PRINT output is sent elsewhere.
16400 VARS Pointer to start of BASIC Variable table
16402 DEST Address of variable in assignment.
16404 E_LINE Pointer to line currently being entered
16406 CH_ADD Address of the next character to be interpreted: the character after the argument of PEEK, or the NEWLINE at the end of a POKE statement.
16408 X_PTR Address of the character preceding the marker.
16410 STKBOT pointer to start (bottom) of stack
16412 STKEND pointer to end (top) of stack
16414 BERG Calculator's b register.
16415 MEM Address of area used for calculator's memory. (Usually MEMBOT, but not always.)
16417 not used
16418 DF_SZ The number of lines (including one blank line) in the lower part of the screen.
16419 S_TOP The number of the top program line in automatic listings.
16421 LAST_K Shows which keys pressed.
16423 Debounce status of keyboard.
16424 MARGIN Number of blank lines above or below picture: 55 in Britain, 31 in America.
16425 NXTLIN Address of next program line to be executed.
16427 OLDPPC Line number of which CONT jumps.
16429 FLAGX Various flags.
16430 STRLEN Length of string type destination in assignment.
16432 T_ADDR Address of next item in syntax table (very unlikely to be useful).
16434 SEED The seed for RND. This is the variable that is set by RAND.
16438 COORDS x-coordinate of last point PLOTted.
16439 y-coordinate of last point PLOTted.
16440 PR_CC Less significant byte of address of next position for LPRINT to print as (in PRBUFF).
16441 S_POSN Column number for PRINT position.
16442 Line number for PRINT position.
16443 CDFLAG Various flags. Bit 7 is on (1) during compute & display mode.
16444 PRBUFF Printer buffer (33rd character is NEWLINE).
16477 MEMBOT Calculator's memory area; used to store numbers that cannot conveniently be put on the calculator stack.
16507 not used
16509 First BASIC line.

Each BASIC line is stored as:

 2 byte line number (in big-endian format)
 2 byte length of text including NEWLINE (in little endian format, length "excludes" the line number and length, i.e. to skip between lines you add "length of text" +4 bytes.
 text (BASIC tokens)
 NEWLINE (0x76)

When a numeric constant is included in the text of a BASIC line, an ASCII string displaying the constant value will be inserted, followed by the token 0x7E, and the next 5 bytes are the value of the constant in floating point format.

Following the last BASIC line comes the VARIABLEs table.

     #first byte of name implies type:
     #011nnnnn = single letter variable name, followed by 5 byte number
     #101nnnnn = multi letter variable name (last letter has high bit set), followed by 5 byte number
     #100nnnnn = array of numbers: 
     #111nnnnnn = control variable of a for-next loop
     #010nnnnn = single letter variable name - 0x20, 2 byte string length, text of string
     #110nnnnn = array of characters


References

[]http://www.worldofspectrum.org/ZX81BasicProgramming/ ZX81 BASIC Programming]

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