CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Preface

  Part I    Developing BASIC Programs on OpenVMS Systems

  1      Overview of the BASIC Language

  2      Developing VAX BASIC Programs in the BASIC Environment
    2.1 Entering the Environment
    2.2 Creating and Running Programs
    2.3 Immediate Mode
    2.4 Debugging in Immediate Mode
    2.5 Compiler Commands
      2.5.1      Entering Comments
      2.5.2      Entering DCL Commands
        2.5.2.1      APPEND Command
        2.5.2.2      ASSIGN Command
        2.5.2.3      COMPILE Command
        2.5.2.4      CONTINUE Command
        2.5.2.5      DELETE Command
        2.5.2.6      EDIT Command
      2.5.3      EXIT Command
      2.5.4      HELP Command
        2.5.4.1      IDENTIFY Command
        2.5.4.2      LIST and LISTNH Commands
        2.5.4.3      LOAD Command
        2.5.4.4      LOCK Command
        2.5.4.5      NEW Command
        2.5.4.6      OLD Command
        2.5.4.7      RENAME Command
        2.5.4.8      REPLACE Command
        2.5.4.9      RESEQUENCE Command
        2.5.4.10     RUN and RUNNH Commands
        2.5.4.11     SAVE Command
        2.5.4.12     SCALE Command
        2.5.4.13     SCRATCH Command
        2.5.4.14     SEQUENCE Command
        2.5.4.15     SET Command
        2.5.4.16     SHOW Command
        2.5.4.17     UNSAVE Command

  3      Developing BASIC Programs at the DCL Command Level
    3.1 Compiling a BASIC Program
      3.1.1      BASIC Command
      3.1.2      BASIC Command Qualifiers
      3.1.3      Compiler Listings
    3.2 Linking a BASIC Program
      3.2.1      LINK Command
      3.2.2      LINK Command Qualifiers
      3.2.3      Linker Input Files
      3.2.4      Linker Output Files
      3.2.5      Using an Object Module Library
      3.2.6      Linker Error Messages
    3.3 Running a BASIC Program

  4      Using the OpenVMS Debugger with BASIC
    4.1 Overview of the Debugger
    4.2 Compiling and Linking to Prepare for Debugging
    4.3 Viewing Your Source Code
      4.3.1      Noscreen Mode
      4.3.2      Screen Mode
    4.4 Controlling and Monitoring Program Execution
      4.4.1      Starting and Resuming Program Execution
      4.4.2      Determining the Current Location of the Program Counter
      4.4.3      Suspending Program Execution
      4.4.4      Tracing Program Execution
      4.4.5      Monitoring Changes in Variables
    4.5 Examining and Manipulating Data
      4.5.1      Displaying the Values of Variables
      4.5.2      Changing the Values of Variables
      4.5.3      Evaluating Expressions
    4.6 Stepping Into BASIC Routines
      4.6.1      Controlling Symbol References
    4.7 A Sample Debugging Session

  Part II    BASIC Programming Concepts

  5      BASIC Concepts and Elements
    5.1 Line Numbers
      5.1.1      Programs with Line Numbers
      5.1.2      Programs without Line Numbers
      5.1.3      Labels
      5.1.4      Continuation of Long Program Statements
    5.2 Identifying Program Units
    5.3 BASIC Character Set
    5.4 Program Documentation
    5.5 Declarations and Data Types
      5.5.1      Implicit Data Typing
      5.5.2      Explicit Data Typing
    5.6 Constants
    5.7 Variables
      5.7.1      Floating-Point Variables
      5.7.2      Integer Variables
      5.7.3      Packed Decimal Variables
      5.7.4      String Variables
      5.7.5      Subscripted Variables
      5.7.6      Initialization of Variables
    5.8 Keywords and Reserved Words
    5.9 Operands, Operators, and Expressions
    5.10 Assignment Statements

  6      Simple Input and Output
    6.1 Program Input
      6.1.1      Providing Input Interactively
        6.1.1.1      INPUT Statement
        6.1.1.2      INPUT LINE and LINPUT Statements
        6.1.1.3      Enabling and Disabling the Question Mark Prompt
      6.1.2      Providing Input from the Source Program
        6.1.2.1      READ and DATA Statements
        6.1.2.2      RESTORE Statement
    6.2 Program Output
      6.2.1      Print Zones-The Comma and the Semicolon
      6.2.2      Output Format for Numbers and Strings
    6.3 Terminal-Format Files
      6.3.1      Opening and Closing a Terminal-Format File
      6.3.2      Writing Records to a Terminal-Format File

  7      Arrays
    7.1 Overview of Arrays
    7.2 Creating Arrays Explicitly
      7.2.1      Creating Arrays with the DECLARE Statement
      7.2.2      Creating Arrays with the DIM Statement
        7.2.2.1      Declarative DIM Statements
        7.2.2.2      Executable DIM Statements
      7.2.3      Creating Arrays with the COMMON Statement
      7.2.4      Creating Arrays with the MAP Statement
    7.3 Creating Arrays Implicitly
    7.4 Determining the Bounds of an Array
    7.5 Assigning and Displaying Array Values
      7.5.1      Assigning Values with the LET Statement
      7.5.2      Listing Array Elements with the PRINT Statement
    7.6 Using MAT Statements
      7.6.1      MAT Statement
      7.6.2      MAT READ Statement
      7.6.3      MAT INPUT [#] Statement
      7.6.4      MAT LINPUT [#] Statement
      7.6.5      MAT PRINT [#] Statement
      7.6.6      Matrix I/O Functions (NUM and NUM2)
    7.7 Matrix Operators
      7.7.1      Arithmetic Matrix Operations
        7.7.1.1      Assignment
        7.7.1.2      Addition and Subtraction
        7.7.1.3      Multiplication
      7.7.2      Matrix Functions
        7.7.2.1      TRN Function
        7.7.2.2      INV Function
        7.7.2.3      DET Function

  8      Data Definition
    8.1 Declarative Statements
    8.2 Data Types
    8.3 Setting the Default Data Type and Size
    8.4 Declaring Variables
    8.5 Declaring Named Constants
    8.6 Operations with Multiple Data Types
    8.7 Allocating Static Storage
      8.7.1      COMMON Statement
      8.7.2      MAP Statement
        8.7.2.1      Single Maps
        8.7.2.2      Multiple Maps
      8.7.3      FILL Items
      8.7.4      Using COMMON and MAP Statements in Subprograms
    8.8 Dynamic Mapping

  9      Creating and Using Data Structures
    9.1 RECORD Statement
      9.1.1      Grouping RECORD Components
      9.1.2      RECORD Variants
      9.1.3      Accessing RECORD Components

  10     Program Control
    10.1 Statement Modifiers
      10.1.1     IF Modifier
      10.1.2     UNLESS Modifier
      10.1.3     FOR Modifier
      10.1.4     UNTIL Modifier
      10.1.5     WHILE Modifier
      10.1.6     Nesting Modifiers
    10.2 Loops
      10.2.1     FOR...NEXT Loops
      10.2.2     WHILE...NEXT Loops
      10.2.3     UNTIL...NEXT Loops
      10.2.4     Nesting Loops
    10.3 Unconditional Branching (GOTO Statement)
    10.4 Conditional Branching
      10.4.1     ON...GOTO...OTHERWISE Statement
      10.4.2     IF...THEN...ELSE Statement
      10.4.3     SELECT...CASE Statement
    10.5 EXIT and ITERATE Statements
    10.6 Executing Local Subroutines
      10.6.1     GOSUB and RETURN Statements
      10.6.2     ON...GOSUB...OTHERWISE Statement
    10.7 Suspending and Halting Program Execution
      10.7.1     SLEEP Statement
      10.7.2     WAIT Statement
      10.7.3     STOP Statement
      10.7.4     END Statement

  11     Functions
    11.1 Built-In Functions
      11.1.1     Numeric Functions
        11.1.1.1     ABS Function
        11.1.1.2     INT and FIX Functions
        11.1.1.3     SIN, COS, and TAN Functions
        11.1.1.4     LOG10 Function
        11.1.1.5     EXP Function
        11.1.1.6     RND Function
      11.1.2     Data Conversion Functions
        11.1.2.1     ASCII Function
        11.1.2.2     CHR$ Function
      11.1.3     String Numeric Functions
        11.1.3.1     FORMAT$ Function
        11.1.3.2     NUM$ and NUM1$ Functions
        11.1.3.3     VAL% and VAL Functions
      11.1.4     String Arithmetic Functions
        11.1.4.1     SUM$ and DIF$ Functions
        11.1.4.2     QUO$, PLACE$, and PROD$ Functions
      11.1.5     Date and Time Functions
        11.1.5.1     DATE$ Function
        11.1.5.2     TIME$ Function
        11.1.5.3     TIME Function
      11.1.6     Terminal Control Functions
        11.1.6.1     CTRLC and RCTRLC Functions
        11.1.6.2     ECHO and NOECHO Functions
        11.1.6.3     INKEY$ Function
    11.2 User-Defined Functions
      11.2.1     Single-Line DEF Functions
      11.2.2     Multiline DEF Functions

  12     String Handling
    12.1 Overview of Strings
    12.2 Using Dynamic Strings
    12.3 Using Fixed-Length Strings
    12.4 Using String Virtual Arrays
    12.5 Assigning String Data
      12.5.1     LET Statement
      12.5.2     LSET Statement
      12.5.3     RSET Statement
      12.5.4     MID$ Assignment Statement
    12.6 Manipulating String Data with String Functions
      12.6.1     LEN Function
      12.6.2     POS Function
      12.6.3     SEG$ Function
      12.6.4     MID$ Function
      12.6.5     STRING$ Function
      12.6.6     SPACE$ Function
      12.6.7     TRM$ Function
      12.6.8     EDIT$ Function
    12.7 Manipulating String Data with Multiple Maps

  13     Program Segmentation
    13.1 BASIC Subprograms
      13.1.1     SUB Subprograms
      13.1.2     FUNCTION Subprograms
    13.2 Declaring Subprograms and Parameters
    13.3 Compiling Subprograms
    13.4 Invoking Subprograms
      13.4.1     Invoking SUB Subprograms
      13.4.2     Invoking FUNCTION Subprograms
    13.5 Returning Program Status

  14     File Input and Output
    14.1 Record Formats
      14.1.1     Fixed-Length Records
      14.1.2     Variable-Length Records
      14.1.3     Stream Records
    14.2 File Organizations
      14.2.1     Terminal-Format Files
      14.2.2     Sequential Files
      14.2.3     Relative Files
      14.2.4     Indexed Files
      14.2.5     Virtual Files
    14.3 Record Access and Record Context
    14.4 I/O and Record Buffers
    14.5 Accessing the Contents of a Record
      14.5.1     MAP Statement
      14.5.2     MAP DYNAMIC and REMAP Statements
      14.5.3     MOVE Statement
    14.6 File and Record Operations
      14.6.1     Opening Files
      14.6.2     Creating Virtual Array Files
      14.6.3     Locating Records
      14.6.4     Reading Records
      14.6.5     Writing Records
      14.6.6     Deleting Records
      14.6.7     Updating Records
      14.6.8     Controlling Record Access
      14.6.9     Gaining Access to Locked Records
      14.6.10    Accessing Records by Record File Address
      14.6.11    Transferring Data to Terminal-Format Files
      14.6.12    Resetting the File Position
      14.6.13    Truncating Files
      14.6.14    Renaming Files
      14.6.15    Closing Files and Ending I/O
      14.6.16    Deleting Files
    14.7 File-Related Functions
      14.7.1     FSP$ Function
      14.7.2     RECOUNT Function
      14.7.3     STATUS, VMSSTATUS, and RMSSTATUS Functions
    14.8 OPEN Statement Options
      14.8.1     BUCKETSIZE Clause
      14.8.2     BUFFER Clause
      14.8.3     CONNECT Clause
      14.8.4     CONTIGUOUS Clause
      14.8.5     DEFAULTNAME Clause
      14.8.6     EXTENDSIZE Clause
      14.8.7     FILESIZE Clause
      14.8.8     NOSPAN Clause
      14.8.9     RECORDTYPE Clause
      14.8.10    TEMPORARY Clause
      14.8.11    USEROPEN Clause
      14.8.12    WINDOWSIZE Clause

  15     Formatting Output with the PRINT USING Statement
    15.1 Overview of the PRINT USING Statement
    15.2 Using Format Strings
    15.3 Printing Numbers
      15.3.1     Specifying the Number of Digits
      15.3.2     Specifying Decimal Point Location
      15.3.3     Printing Numbers with Special Symbols
        15.3.3.1     Commas
        15.3.3.2     Asterisk-Fill Fields
        15.3.3.3     Currency Symbols
        15.3.3.4     Negative Fields
        15.3.3.5     E (Exponential) Format
        15.3.3.6     Leading Zeros
        15.3.3.7     Blank-If-Zero Fields
        15.3.3.8     Debits and Credits
    15.4 Printing Strings
      15.4.1     Left-Justified Format
      15.4.2     Right-Justified Format
      15.4.3     Centered Fields
      15.4.4     Extended Fields
    15.5 PRINT USING Statement Error Conditions

  16     Handling Run-Time Errors
    16.1 Default Error Handling
    16.2 User-Supplied Error Handlers
      16.2.1     Protected Regions
      16.2.2     Handlers
      16.2.3     Exiting from Handlers
        16.2.3.1     RETRY Statement
        16.2.3.2     CONTINUE Statement
        16.2.3.3     EXIT HANDLER Statement
      16.2.4     Selecting the Severity of Errors to Handle
      16.2.5     Identifying Errors
        16.2.5.1     Determining the Error Number (ERR)
        16.2.5.2     Determining the Error Line Number (ERL)
        16.2.5.3     Determining Where the Error Occurred (ERN$)
        16.2.5.4     Determining the Error Message Text (ERT$)
        16.2.5.5     Determining OpenVMS Error Information
        16.2.5.6     Determining RMS Error Information
      16.2.6     Ctrl/C Trapping
      16.2.7     Handling Errors in Multiple-Unit Programs
      16.2.8     Forcing Errors
    16.3 Using the ON ERROR Statements

  17     Compiler Directives
    17.1 Overview of Compiler Directives
    17.2 Controlling the Compilation Listing
      17.2.1     %TITLE and %SBTTL Directives
      17.2.2     %IDENT Directive
      17.2.3     %PAGE Directive
      17.2.4     %LIST and %NOLIST Directives
      17.2.5     %CROSS and %NOCROSS Directives
    17.3 Accessing External Source Files
    17.4 Controlling Compilation
      17.4.1     %LET Directive
      17.4.2     %VARIANT Directive
      17.4.3     %ABORT Directive
      17.4.4     %PRINT Directive
      17.4.5     %IF-%THEN-%ELSE-%END %IF Directive
    17.5 Record Dependency Relationships in CDD/Repository

  18     Data Representation
    18.1 Integer Format
      18.1.1     Byte-Length Integer Format
      18.1.2     Word-Length Integer Format
      18.1.3     Longword Integer Format
    18.2 Real Number Format
      18.2.1     SINGLE Floating-Point Number Format (F_floating)
      18.2.2     DOUBLE Floating-Point Number Format (D_floating)
      18.2.3     GFLOAT Floating-Point Number Format (G_floating)
      18.2.4     HFLOAT Floating-Point Number Format (H_floating)-VAX BASIC Only
    18.3 Packed Decimal Number Format
    18.4 String and Array Descriptor Format
      18.4.1     Fixed-Length String Descriptor Format
      18.4.2     Dynamic String Descriptor Format
    18.5 Array Descriptors
    18.6 Decimal Scalar String Descriptor (Packed Decimal String Descriptor)

  Part III    Using BASIC Features on OpenVMS Systems

  19     Advanced File Input and Output
    19.1 RMS I/O to Magnetic Tape
      19.1.1     Allocating and Mounting a Tape
      19.1.2     Opening a Tape File for Output
      19.1.3     Opening a Tape File for Input
      19.1.4     Positioning a Tape
      19.1.5     Writing Records to a File
      19.1.6     Reading Records from a File
      19.1.7     Controlling Tape Output Format
      19.1.8     Rewinding a Tape
      19.1.9     Closing a File
    19.2 Device-Specific I/O
      19.2.1     Device-Specific I/O to Unit Record Devices
      19.2.2     Device-Specific I/O to Magnetic Tape Devices
        19.2.2.1     Allocating and Mounting a Tape
        19.2.2.2     Opening a Tape File for Output
        19.2.2.3     Opening a Tape File for Input
        19.2.2.4     Writing Records to a File
        19.2.2.5     Reading Records from a File
        19.2.2.6     Rewinding a Tape
        19.2.2.7     Closing a Tape
      19.2.3     Device-Specific I/O to Disks
        19.2.3.1     Assigning and Mounting a Disk
        19.2.3.2     Opening a Disk File for Output
        19.2.3.3     Opening a Disk File for Input
        19.2.3.4     Writing Records to a Disk File
        19.2.3.5     Reading Records from a Disk File
    19.3 I/O to Mailboxes
    19.4 Network I/O
      19.4.1     Remote File Access
      19.4.2     Task-to-Task Communication
      19.4.3     Accessing a VAX Rdb/VMS Database

  20     Using BASIC in the Common Language Environment
    20.1 Specifying Parameter-Passing Mechanisms
      20.1.1     Passing Parameters by Reference
      20.1.2     Passing Parameters by Descriptor
      20.1.3     Passing Parameters by Value
      20.1.4     BASIC Default Parameter-Passing Mechanisms
      20.1.5     Creating Local Copies
    20.2 Calling External Routines
      20.2.1     Determining the Type of Call
      20.2.2     Declaring an External Routine and Its Arguments
      20.2.3     Calling the Routine
    20.3 Calling BASIC Subprograms from Other Languages
    20.4 Calling System Routines
      20.4.1     OpenVMS Run-Time Library Routines
      20.4.2     System Service Routines
      20.4.3     System Routine Arguments
      20.4.4     Including Symbolic Definitions
      20.4.5     Condition Values
    20.5 Examples of Calling System Routines
    20.6 The OpenVMS Calling Standard
    20.7 Additional Information

  21     Libraries and Shareable Images
    21.1 Overview of Libraries
    21.2 System-Supplied Libraries
    21.3 Creating User-Supplied Object Module Libraries
      21.3.1     Accessing User-Supplied Object Module Libraries in the BASIC Environment
      21.3.2     Accessing User-Supplied Object Module Libraries at DCL Level
    21.4 Shareable Images
      21.4.1     Accessing Shareable Images in the BASIC Environment
      21.4.2     Accessing Shareable Images at DCL Level

  22     Using CDD/Repository with BASIC
    22.1 Overview of CDD/Repository
    22.2 CDD/Repository Concepts
      22.2.1     Dictionary Formats
      22.2.2     Dictionary Path Names
      22.2.3     Dictionary Entities
      22.2.4     Dictionary Relationships
      22.2.5     Extracting CDD/Repository Data Definitions
    22.3 Using CDD/Repository with BASIC
      22.3.1     /DEPENDENCY_DATA Qualifier
      22.3.2     Creating Relationships with Included Record Definitions
    22.4 Creating Relationships for Referenced Dictionary Entities
    22.5 Specifying a CDD History List Entry
    22.6 CDD/Repository Arrays
    22.7 CDD/Repository Variants
    22.8 NAME FOR BASIC Clause
    22.9 CDD/Repository Data Types
      22.9.1     Character String Data Types
      22.9.2     Integer Data Types
      22.9.3     Floating-Point Data Types
      22.9.4     Decimal String Data Types
      22.9.5     Other Data Types

  A Compile-Time Error Messages
    A.1 Compile-Time Errors

  B Run-Time Error Messages
    B.1 BASIC Run-Time Errors By Mnemonic
    B.2 BASIC Run-time Errors By Number
    B.3 Errors Not Generated By BASIC

  C Optional Programming Productivity Tools
    C.1 DEC Language-Sensitive Editor (LSE) and Source Code Analyzer (SCA)
      C.1.1      Preparing an SCA Library
      C.1.2      Compiling from within LSE
      C.1.3      BASIC Support for LSE and SCA Features
        C.1.3.1      Programming Language Placeholders and Tokens
        C.1.3.2      Placeholder and Design Comment Processing
    C.2 CDD/Repository
    C.3 DEC Database Management System (DEC DBMS)
    C.4 VAX DEC/Test Manager
    C.5 VAX DEC/Code Management System (CMS)