Re: running .system files from BASIC

[Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net>]

In article <c4rmav$671$1@acme.gcfn.org>,
 dalloff@gcfn.org (Dave Althoff Jr) wrote:

> Don Bruder (dakidd@sonic.net) wrote:
> : In article <LfqdnZdcsZ_xJO3dRVn-iQ@comcast.com>,
> :  "Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast DOT net> wrote:
> 
> : > You need the Semi-Colon after D$ otherwise
> : > it'll think D$"-xxxxxxxx.SYSTEM" is all one
> : > variable.
> 
> : I'm not going to swear to it, but I think that's incorrect. Seems to me 
> : I remember writing code either way, since Applesoft didn't care whether 
> : the semicolon was there or not.
> 
> : There were a couple special cases that I can't recall right now (mostly 
> : involving unexpected ways the parser saw things) that made it a really 
> : good idea to use the semicolon between items in a print list, but aside 
> : from the "gotcha" cases, I'm pretty sure it's optional.
> 
> I've never seen problems like that with this form of print statement.  But
> I have seen oddball problems when the parser would do exactly as I told it
> instead of what I wanted it to do.  Consider this:
> 
> nnn IF B = A THEN 40
> 
> ...will result in a ?SYNTAX ERROR while...
> 
> nno IF A = B THEN 40 
> 
> ...will work fine.  Reading the listing reveals all:
> 
> LIST nnn-nno
> nnn IF B = AT HEN 40
> nno IF A = B THEN 40

Right. That's a picture-perfect example of the "unexpected way the 
parser saw things" I was referring to. seems to me there's another one 
that can "bite" when there's an equals sign, too - The variable name 
plus the equals sign, plus the text *BEFORE* the variable name get 
mashed together internally, and the machine thinks you typed a reserved 
word. I can't recall the precise details of what the preceeding text 
needs to be, and which variable it is, but it's one of the known 
parser-gotchas. 

> Now wait a minute...I thought the highest allowable Applesoft line number
> was 63999...anybody know for sure?

I'm pretty close to certain that the correct "limit" is 65529, but I'd 
have to fire up a II and try it to be sure.

-- 
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