ZBasic Language Reference
5
ZBasic Microcontrollers
1.4 Conventions
In this manual, specific examples of things that can appear in your ZBasic program are shown in
Courier typeface as are descriptions of the syntax of program elements. Otherwise, discussion and
general references to program elements will be shown in Arial typeface.
When describing the syntax of a ZBasic language element, sometimes portions of it are optional. This
fact is indicated by enclosing the optional portion with left and right square brackets. Literal elements,
those that must appear as typed (but without regard to alphabetic case, of course) appear as themselves.
Often, it is useful to describe an element generally rather than giving a specific instance. When this is
done, the description will be italicized and enclosed with left and right angle brackets and subsequent text
will describe the characteristics of the generalized item.
Here is an example that uses these conventions:
[Private] Const <name> As <type> = <value>
The idea being conveyed is that this program element may begin with the Private keyword or it may be
omitted, i.e. it is optional. The keywords Const and As are specified literally as is the equal sign. The
name of the constant to be defined, its type and value are all specified using a descriptive word or phrase
enclosed in angle brackets. These placeholder components will be explicitly described in the discussion
of the program element.
In some instances, there may be more than one optional element that may appear in a given position. In
these cases, the vertical bar character is used to indicate that any one element may be used, but not
more than one, of course.
[Public | Private] Const <name> As <type> = <value>
This conveys the idea that the either the keyword Public or the keyword Private may be present but it
is also permissible for neither to be present.
In other cases, there may be a set of elements from which exactly one must be chosen.
{Public | Private | Dim} <name> As <type>
The curly braces indicate that one of the keywords Public, Private or Dim must precede the <name>
element.
In various places in this document you will find a text box with information about BasicX compatibility.
Most often, the text will describe how some particular feature is different when the BasicX compatibility
mode is enabled. In a few instances, the text will describe how ZBasic is fundamentally different from
BasicX. This information is most useful to those who are upgrading to ZBasic from BasicX. If that is not
the case for you, you may safely ignore such information.
The microcontroller for which you are compiling your application is referred to as the target device.
A target device may be a ZX device or it may be a generic target device. When referring to target
devices, the phrase ZX device is used when the discussion applies only to ZX devices. Otherwise, the
target device is referred to generally as a ZBasic device or ZBasic target device when the discussion
applies to both ZX devices and generic target devices.
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