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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Color BASIC | |
|---|---|
| Designed by | Bill Gates[1] |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| First appeared | 1980 |
| Stable release | Color BASIC 1.3 (1982) Extended Color BASIC ("ECB") (1984) Disk Extended Color BASIC ("DECB") (1984) |
| Platform | TRS-80 Color Computer |
Color BASIC is the implementation of Microsoft BASIC that is included in the ROM of the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computers manufactured between 1980 and 1991. BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a high level language with simple syntax that makes it easy to write simple programs. Color BASIC is interpreted, that is, decoded as it is run.
The nucleus of Color BASIC was Microsoft BASIC-69 which Tandy licensed from Microsoft. Color BASIC 1.0 was released with the original 4k TRS-80 Color Computer in 1980. It resides on 8k bytes of ROM, and is responsible for all 'housekeeping' duties on the system. This includes hardware initialization, memory management, interrupt processing, etc. Like most implementations of BASIC, each line of code starts with a line number and consists of one or more statements with variables and operators. 16k of memory is required for the next level of BASIC, Extended Color BASIC ("ECB"). Extended BASIC is required for the floppy disk controller, which then gives you Disk Extended Color BASIC ("DECB"). Emulators of the Color Computers running this interpreter and the others are available for modern computers, some of which require a "snapshot" file of the physical machine.[2]
Color BASIC understands one type of numeric variable and string variables. Variable names in Color BASIC have the first two characters significant. The first character of the variable name must be a letter. The second can be either a letter or number. String variables are indicated by adding a dollar sign ($) after the variable name.
A=5
A$="THIS IS A STRING"
K7=10
BB$="HELLO!"
ZZ=1.54
Numeric variables have only one type, a binary floating point implementation. Each numeric variable uses 5 bytes of memory and can be in the range from -1E+38 up to 1E+37.
Unlike most implementations of Microsoft BASIC, Color BASIC requires the user to reserve space for string variables via the CLEAR statement.
Multidimensional arrays are also supported with both numeric and string variables. In the case of an array, the element address is enclosed with a parenthesis:
A(1)=1
A$(1)="BOOKS"
Multiple dimensions are separated by commas
A(1,3)=4
A$(2,2)="XYZ123"
Color BASIC provides several operators for both mathematic and, to a lesser extent, string operations.
Parenthesis ( ) are used to override mathematical order of operation
For testing, the following operators are used:
Other symbols used in BASIC:
num indicates a numeric expression is required. This can be a fixed number, a variable, or other operation or function that returns a numeric quantity.
str indicates a string expression is required. This can be a static string value (in quotes), a string variable, or other function or expression that returns a string of characters.
device number indicates a device. By default, device 0 (screen and keyboard) is assumed. In Color BASIC, device #-1 (cassette) and #-2 (printer) are available to the programmer.
If you make a mistake typing in a line, you can either retype it from scratch (or DEL it).. or you can EDIT it. When in EDIT mode, you get a reprint of the line, and a second copy that you SPACEbar across chars. You cannot use arrow keys. backspace takes you left, but does not actually erase it in the buffer. 'i' puts you in insert mode. pressing return gets you out of it. 'c' changes one char, 'd' deletes one char. 'x' takes you to end of line, allowing you to e'x'tend it. 'l' redraws the line. 's' searches for the next instance of a character. For the 's', 'c' and 'd' commands you can also enter a number (#) before pressing any of them which will: 's' - search for the # instance of the character, 'c' - allow you to change # of characters, 'd' - delete # amount characters.
ABS(num)ASC(str)CHR$(num)EOF(device number)INKEY$INT(num)INSTR(startpos,search str,target str)JOYSTK(num)LEFT$(str,num)LEN(str)MEMMID$(str,start num,length num)PEEK(num)POINT(x num,y num)RIGHT$(str,position num)RND(number)SGN(num)SIN(num)STR$(num)USR(num)AUDIO [ON|OFF]CLEAR variable space[,highest memory location]CLOAD ["name"]CLOADM ["name"]CLOSE [device number]CLS(num)CONTCSAVE ["name"]DATA var,var,var...DIM variable(dimension[,dimension 2,...]ENDEXECINPUT [device number] [{prompt text};] variable [,variable 2, variable n]LIST [starting line] - [ending line]LLIST [starting line] - [ending line]MOTOR [ON|OFF]NEWON {num} GOSUB line 1, line 2, ... line nON (num) GOTO line 1, line 2, ... line nOPEN "[I|O]",device number[,"filename"]POKE memory address, dataPRINT device number,expressionPRINT @{screen position} expressionREAD variable[,variable,...]RENUM NewStart num, OldStart num, Increment numRESET(x,y)RESTORERETURNRUN numSET(x,y,color)SKIPF ["filename"]SOUND tone,durationSTOPTAB(column)VAL(str)GOSUB {line number}GOTO {line number}IF {test} THEN {command(s)} [ELSE {command(s)}]FOR {num} = {number} TO {number} [STEP {number}] ... NEXT (num)
/0AOBSCNDDDNDSFCFDFMIDIEIOLSNFNOODOMOSOVRGSNSTTMULThere are a few subroutines available for machine language programs in the Color BASIC ROM that are available for general purpose programming.
POLCATCHROUTCSRDONBLKINBLKOUTJOYINSource: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Color BASIC is the implementation of Microsoft BASIC that is included in the ROM of the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computers manufactured between 1980 and 1991. BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a high level language with simple syntax that makes it easy to write simple programs. Color BASIC is interpreted, that is, decoded as it is run.
Extended Color Basic is an update to the Color BASIC interpreter for the Radio Shack/Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer series, and is the default Basic interpreter for the Color Computer 2. The Color Computer Basic implementations are somewhat different for the versions of Basic which come with the other family of TRS-80 machines, namely Basic Levels I, II, and III. Assemblers and Pascal and C programming language compilers are available for the different machines in the series. Modified subsets of Color Basic may be found on many of the Radio Shack PC series of pocket computers (PC-1 to PC-4 by Sharp, PC-5, PC-6 to PC-8 by Casio) of the era. Color Basic was updated again for the Color Computer 3 and some sources refer to it as Enhanced Color Basic. A version containing routines for disk management known as Disk Color BASIC was also developed for these machines. Updates to the language include routines such as PLAY (for use with the sound facility), DRAW (for vector graphics and other things with lines) and other additions as well as undocumented functions such as those inherited originally from the original Color Basic to work with the semi-graphics modes. A fifth programming language for this series of computers is the Basic interpreter which runs on the Radio Shack/Tandy MC-10, a small computer marketed beginning in 1984.
Disk Extended Color Basic is an update to the Color BASIC interpreter for the Radio Shack/Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer series and is the default BASIC interpreter, and therefore the de facto operating system, for the Color Computer 3. The Color Computer Basic implementations are somewhat different for the versions of Basic which come with the other family of TRS-80 machines, namely Basic Levels I, II, and III. Assemblers and Pascal and C compilers are available for the different machines in the series. Modified subsets of Color Basic may be found on many of the Radio Shack PC series of pocket computers (PC-1 to PC-4 by Sharp, PC-5, PC-6 to PC-8 by Casio) of the era. Color Basic was updated again for the Color Computer 3 and some sources refer to this fourth as Enhanced Color Basic. This version containing routines for disk management is known as Disk Extended Color BASIC. Updates to the language include routines for disk management, therefore the name. A fifth programming language for this series of computers is the Basic interpreter which runs on the Radio Shack/Tandy MC-10, a small computer marketed beginning in 1984. Emulators of the Color Computers running this programme interpreter and the others are available for modern computers, some of which require a "snapshot" file of the physical machine.
Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution (1969; ISBN 1-57586-162-3) is a book by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay. Berlin and Kay's work proposed that the basic color terms in a culture, such as black, brown, or red, are predictable by the number of color terms the culture has. All cultures have terms for black/dark and white/bright. If a culture has three color terms, the third is red. If a culture has four, it has either yellow or green. (Note that this counts only the "basic" color terms. It does not include terms or descriptions such as "light blue", "carrot-colored", or "taupe". For more information, see the page on color terms.) Berlin and Kay posit seven levels in which cultures fall, with Stage I languages having only the colors black (dark–cool) and white (light–warm). Languages in Stage VII have eight or more basic color terms. This includes English, which has eleven basic color terms. The authors theorize that as languages evolve, they acquire new basic color terms in a strict chronological sequence; if a basic color term is found in a language, then the colors of all earlier stages should also be present. The sequence is as follows: Stage I: Dark-cool and light-warm (this covers a larger set of colors than just English "black" and "white".) Stage II: Red Stage III: Either green or yellow Stage IV: Both green and yellow Stage V: Blue Stage VI: Brown Stage VII: Purple, pink, orange, or gray The work has achieved widespread influence. However, the constraints in color-term ordering have been substantially loosened, both by Berlin and Kay in later publications and by various critics. Barbara Saunders questioned the methodologies of data collection and the cultural assumptions underpinning the research, as has Stephen C. Levinson.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Joe Louis.
