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USUL

Alpha Information!

WHAT DOES USUL STAND FOR?

Well, good question! It stands for Usgard Super Utopian Language. It's also a character from a book.

WHAT'S NEW?

Latest Version: Alpha 5 Build 125

DOWNLOAD USUL ALPHA 5/125! - Contains all the commands on this online documentation, some sample programs, and all the files you'll need to develop with USUL! People who submit programs I can use as examples will receive credit in the program!

  • New Command: MENU_INV. A procedure like MENU_PRINT that prints text inverted. A very valuable feature that is *not* built into Usgard.
  • New Command: VAL. Returns the value of a string.
  • Updated Command: INPUT. Allows user to specify a GOTO / GOSUB if the EXIT key was pressed during input.
  • Bug Fix: INPUT. Now it works :).

    And here's what's to come soon:

  • New Variable Type: Arrays of bytes and word values.
  • New Variable Type: Temporary Strings.
  • New Command: FOR looping.
  • New Feature: Power commands; let you take the power to optimize your code by using commands that can be done more efficiently under certain circumstances. For example, a power command MULT2 instead of using MULTIPLY will be more speed and size efficient, but only for multiplying numbers by two. Another example, LOADZERO, saves a little sizewise for loading variables with zero and is a little quicker, but only works for loading numbers with ZERO and only with 8 bit numbers.
  • New Feature: Custom commands in Basic Xtention Modules lets developers release common commands to interface transparently with USUL!
  • New Command: TIMER ON / TIMER OFF. Updates msec, sec, min, and hour with their respective value while timer is on.
  • New Command: CUSTOM ON / CUSTOM OFF. Users can install customized TSR functions called 200 times a second.
  • New Feature: Dancing Naked Ladies
  • New Feature: Your Suggestions!

    USUL Command Listing - A listing of all the commands currently in USUL. This is updated fairly often (actually, every time I add another command!)

    USUL Extra Variables Listing - A listing of 'extra' variables for use in USUL programs; mostly just gives early programmers knowledge of USGARD.H variables, such as CONTRAST, and the K_ values. Good for reference.

    Key Code Scan Definitions for USUL's GET_KEY Command - A listing of what is returned from GET_KEY for each key.


    Spam Spam USUL 5.0 - An example source file for the Usgard Basic Development Kit; this shows you how easy it would be to make a game in USUL. This is great, it's completely done and takes advantage of USUL's inputting commands!

    Hello World! USUL - The USUL source file, resulting assembly file, and compiled version of a Hello World! application. You can see, through these few commands displayed, how compact the code is and how USUL does it's wonderful magic. Okay, maybe not so much, it only has 4 commands... I tried to compile a HAL version of the same program, but for some reason when I ran it, it deleted Usgard from my calculator, and I didn't feel like figuring out why.

    So why is USUL so great? It gives flexibility and power to users - for example, the BREAK routine is a great debugging feature that solves about 90% of crashes with USUL, it does add a little size to your program though. But if you don't use BREAK routines, or delay routines, or sprite routines, you don't have to worry about that. These routines won't be included in your program. So if you think USUL has too many commands, or commands that you'd never use - don't worry! Just don't use them! Many commands may seem foolish or useless to you but to another person they are quite helpful.


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    Questions? Comments? Ideas for USUL?

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    eviljim@writeme.com

    Copyright © 1996, 1997 Jim Reardon