Radio Shack TRS-80 model III Owner's Manual page 92

DISK BASIC
Introduction
Start-Up
Under trsdos ready,
type:
BASIC
fENTER)
trsdos
will load
basic and begin
the "initialization dialog."
If
you want
to
recover a
Disk basic program
after
returning to
trsdos
for a
dir
or other
trsdos
command,
use
this
command
under
trsdos ready:
BASIC
*
(ENTER]
You
will
go
directly to
Basic's
ready mode without any
initialization
dialog. If
you had
a
program
in
memory,
it
should
still
be
there.
You
may
not
be
able to
run
the
program.
To be
safe,
you
should immediately save the
program, go
to
trsdos, then
start
basic again (no
asterisk).
Note:
If
you have overlaid user
memory
while
in
trsdos, your program
will
be
erased. In
such a case,
you should not
restart
basic, but should use the
normal
basic start-up
procedure.
Initialization
When
you
start
Disk basic,
you
are
first
asked,
HON MANY FILES?. This
lets
you
specify the
maximum number
of
files
that will
be
"open
"
or in
use
at
once.
(See open.)
Type
in
an appropriate
number and
press (ENTER),
or
simply press
(ENTER)
and basic
will
provide for three
files.
For example,
if
your
program
requires
one
input
file
and one output
file,
you
should ask for
two
files.
Note: Normally, basic will
give
all
your data
files
a
record length of 256.
(See File
Access Techniques.)
If
you wish
to set
the
record length of each
file
individually,
use the suffix
v
for
"Variable"
after the
number
of
files.
For example,
HON MANY
FILES? 3U
fENTER)
tells
basic
to
give
you three file-buffers,
and
to let
you
set
the
record length of
each
file
when
that file is first
opened.
Note: Disk basic
automatically
creates a buffer for loading, saving,
and
merging basic
programs. This
buffer
exists in
ram
below any data
file
buffers
you
may
request.
It is
always
available for
program
i/o,
regardless
of
how
you
answer the files? question.
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