Personal Computer News


Making Some Sharp Points

 
Published in Personal Computer News #056

Making Some Sharp Points

The following are all statements and commands which receive no mention in the Sharp MZ700 manual:

  1. TRON and TROFF
    Trace commands which cover the screen with the number of the line currently being executed
  2. CLS
    Clears the screen
  3. BOOT
    This appears to boot the Sharp in the vitals; it clears the Basic program and returns you to the monitor. It appears to be identical to BYE
  4. AND, OR and EOR
    Are all reserved words but are not implemented. Thus, while you cannot LET OR = 10, neither can you IF (A<=0) OR (A=>0) THEN BOOT. The logical operands are *, + and - for AND, OR and EOR respectively.
  5. JOY
    Is the keyword for reading the joysticks.

A number of peple have given the impression that the MZ700 has no typewriter mode i.e. shift for capitals. There are at least three ways of doing this:

  1. Press Shift and Alpha together to toggle typewriter mode on and off.
  2. Press CTRL and E together to turn the mode on and CTRL and F to turn it off.
  3. PRINT CHR$(5) and PRINT CHR$(6) respectively.

In all these cases, the cursor is solid for lower case and shaded for upper case.

Keith Ollett
Crowborough, E. Sussex

Keith Ollett