Page 15 of 229 Start Back Next End 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.