Special Function Descriptions

 

Here are more detailed descriptions of the special shortcut functions that are not part of Windows or the HTBasic menu system.

 

ALPHA makes the Alpha Screen visible. Pushing the key twice makes the Graphics Screen invisible. If ALPHA and GRAPHICS are merged, this key has no effect.

 

ANY CHAR  allows any character to be entered. If the next character pressed is a Function key, then two characters are entered. The first character has the value CHR$(255). The second character is a code that identifies which editor function was pressed. You also can enter regular characters or control characters using this function.

 

CLR I/O aborts an I/O operation that is in progress. Unless timeouts have been enabled, the system will wait forever for an I/O operation to complete. Pressing this key forces the program to return to a paused condition. Pressing CONTINUE will cause the I/O statement to be reexecuted.

 

EXECUTE SELECTED Runs the piece of code selected by the user. The selected piece of code must be commands that can be executed from the command line. If a programmable only command is selected, an error will occur.

 

GRAPHICS makes the Graphics Screen visible. Pressing the key twice makes the Alpha Screen invisible. If ALPHA and GRAPHICS are merged, this key has no effect.

 

Shift+HOME sets the print position to the first blank line at the end of the Extended Output Area. If this position is not visible, the screen is scrolled to move it onto the screen.

 

INCR LABELS cycles through the softkey menu labels at the bottom of the screen.

 

K0 to K23 are user Softkeys 0 to 23. User softkeys can be used as either keyboard macros (sometimes called "typing aids") or for generating events in a running program. By default, a user softkey acts as a keyboard macro. When you push a user softkey, one or more keystrokes that have been assigned to that key will be entered just as if you had typed them. See "Softkey Macros" in Chapter 8, "Customizing the Environment." If the key is used in an ON KEY statement, then it is no longer active for softkey macros, but instead generates an event that causes a GOTO, GOSUB, CALL or RECOVER.

 

MENU toggles the softkey menu on or off.

 

NEXT scrolls the output area up to allow viewing of the next part of the Extended Output Area.

 

PREV scrolls the output area updown to allow viewing of the previous part of the Extended Output Area.

 

PRT ALL causes subsequent screen output to the message line, display line, input line and output area to also be sent to the PRINTALL device.

 

QUIT ALL closes the HTBasic window and any child windows.

 

RECALL recalls previous lines entered.

 

RECALL NEW recalls next lines entered (the opposite of the RECALL)  to search back and forth through the saved lines.

 

RESET resets HTBasic. If a program is running, it is stopped but not deleted.

 

RESULT recalls the result of the last numeric calculation into the input line.

 

ROMAN turns on Roman Mode (as opposed to Katakana Mode).

 

SET TAB sets a tab stop at the present cursor position.

 

STEP executes one line of the program and then pauses. If a program is not currently running when you press this key, the first press of the key causes the program to be prerun in preparation for the next press of the STEP key. With each press of the STEP key, the statement that will execute next is displayed.

 

STEP INTO is a debugger tool, which executes each line of code one at a time.

 

STEP OUT Is a debugger tool that continues to the end of context, stopping when entering the calling context.

 

STEP OVER Is a debugger tool that runs the entire sub context and stops at the next executable line of the current context.

 

SYSTEM displays the System Softkey Menu.

 

SYSTEM MENU Pulls up the Windows system menu at the top of the window. This menu allows you to minimize, maximize or close your application.

 

TAB moves the cursor to the next tab stop.

 

TAB BACK moves the cursor to the previous tab stop.

 

TRACE WINDOW Enables or disables the debug trace window. This window permits the user to observe which commands are being executed in the running program. There is nothing to "set" in this window.

 

USER displays the User-1 Softkey menu.

 

Watch Window Enables or disables the debug watch window. This window permits the programmer to watch the values change during the program run for the list of user-defined variables at each step of the program.