ICL 2903 Educational System User’s Guide

Note

This is a transcription of the first edition of the user guide for the interactive BASIC system delivered by the NSP Computer Centre. It’s clearly a very early version as there are differences between the language described here and that of the earlier reference card and between the formatting of output it reproduces and that actually generated by the real system.

Contents

• Preliminary Material
• Preface

• Introduction

• The System

• Chapter one: A BASIC Session
  • Connection
  • Starting a BASIC session
  • Terminating a BASIC session
  • Creating a new program in store
  • Typing errors
  • Program errors
  • HELP command

• Chapter two: Simple Programming
  • Arithmetic
    • Variables and constants
    • Arrays
    • Standard functions
    • The random number generator
  • Printing
  • Program Input
    • READ, DATA and RESTORE
    • The INPUT statement
    • The LINPUT statement
  • Simple loops and branches
  • FOR loops
  • Running programs
  • Changing the current program
    • Adding additional lines and changing lines
    • Deleting lines
  • Inspecting the current program
  • Naming a program in store
  • Storing programs on disc
  • Listing details of stored programs
  • Retrieving stored programs
  • Deleting stored programs

• Chapter three: String handling
  • Use of quotes
  • The & operator
  • String functions
    • Functions giving numeric results
      • CHR(A$)
      • LEN(A$)
      • LIN(A$)
      • OCC(A$,B$)
      • POS(A$,B$)
      • POS(A$,B$,N)
      • VAL(A$)
    • Functions giving string results
      • CHR$(N)
      • SUB$(A$,N,M)
      • STR$(X)
      • GAP$(N)
      • LIN$(N)
      • MՍԼ$(A$,N)
      • SGN$(X)
      • DEL$(A$,B$,N)
      • SDL$(A$,B$,N)
      • REP$(A$,B$,C$,N)
      • SRP$(A$,B$,C$,N)
  • The CHANGE statement

• Chapter four: Loops and branches
  • Conditional statements
    • The IF statement
    • Logical conditions
  • Note on relation operators
  • ON … GOTO
  • Subroutines
  • FOR-NEXT loops
  • Function definitions
  • Parameters and local variables

• Chapter five: Program output
  • Printing - more complex formats
  • Summary of print editing
  • The PRINT USING statement

• Chapter six: File handling
  • Introduction
  • Terminal format files
    • Statements and commands which process terminal format files
      • The OPEN command
      • The KILL command
      • The EXTEND command
      • The GET command
      • The LIST command
      • The DELETE command
      • The FILE statement
      • The PRINT statement
      • The INPUT and LINPUT statements
      • The IF MORE and IF END statements
      • The SCRATCH statement
      • The RESET statement
      • File handling functions
  • Internal format files
    • Statements and commands which process internal format files
      • The OPEN command
      • The WRITE statement
      • The READ statement
      • The IF MORE and IF END statements
  • Statements and commands which can be used with all types of files
    • CΗΑΙΝ

• Chapter seven: Matrix handling
  • Declaring
  • Dimensions and redimensioning
  • Input and output
    • Input from and output to a terminal
    • Input from and output to a terminal format file
    • Input from DATA statements within the program
    • Input from the output to an internal format file
  • Matrix functions
    • ZER
    • CON
    • ΙDΝ
    • TRN(Z)
    • INV(R)
    • DΕΤ
    • COL(A)
    • ROW(A)
  • Matrix manipulation and arithmetic
    • Assignment
    • Arithmetic operations
    • Multiplication
    • Division

• Chapter eight: Advanced system facilities and budgeting
  • Allocation and control of resources
  • Running programs
  • Renumbering the program
  • Storing compiled programs on disc
  • Dumping programs onto disc
  • Loading object programs
  • Continuing programs
  • The CHAIN statement
  • Immediate execute
  • General commands
    • ΑCCΟUΝΤ
    • DISC
    • DΑΤΕ
    • ΤΙΜΕ
    • LENGTH

• Chapter nine: Preparation of program source
  • Using paper tape on terminals
    • (a) To prepare a program off line
    • (b) To list a paper tape offline
    • (c) To read a program on line
    • (d) To Punch a program onto Paper Tape when online
  • Using the BASIC system in batch mode
    • Input on cards
    • Input on paper-tape

Index