Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 6.5
The PowerBASIC 3.5 for DOS IDE
Table 6.3
Summary of PowerBASIC 3.5 for DOS variable types
Variable type
Indicator
Element size (bytes)
DEF type (see Note 1)
Type keyword
Pointer
@
4
PTR
Integer
%
2
DEFINT
INTEGER
Long integer
&
4
DEFLNG
LONG
Quad integer
&&
8
DEFQUD
QUAD
Byte
?
1
DEFBYT
BYTE
Word
??
2
DEFWRD
WORD
Double Word
???
4
DEFDWD
DWORD
Single precision
!
4
DEFSNG
SINGLE
Double precision
#
8
DEFDBL
DOUBLE
Extended precision
##
10
DEFEXT
EXT
BCD fixed point
@
8
DEFFIX
FIX
BCD floating point
@@
10
DEFBCD
BCD
String (see Note 2)
$
2
DEFSTR
STRING
Flex string (see Note 2)
$$
2
DEFFLX
FLEX
Fixed-length string
n/a
n/a
STRING *
x
ASCIIZ string
n/a
n/a
ASCIIZ *
x
Notes
: 1 DEF type refers to all 13 variable type declaration statements.
2 Only the string handle number is contained in a string array element. The string data itself is stored
elsewhere in memory and it occupies as many bytes as the string has characters.
PowerBASIC for DOS
The PowerBASIC package includes two compilers, an Integrated Develop-
ment Environment (IDE) (see Figure 6.5), and a command-line compiler. The
integrated environment provides a text editor, a compiler, a debugger, pull-down
menus, Windows, input boxes, and context-sensitive help.
PowerBASIC represents a significant enhancement to earlier DOS BASIC
compilers.
Power BASIC 2.0 was released in May 1990 in the same year