Easy to learn/use program languages

[Rocko]

Nukey Shay helped me in the mous tutorial, so I am asking, Are there any easy program languages that use ascii graphics and let you move icons (ie press up, your little A or whatever will go up, press left, it will go left) Like ZZT?

[Nukey Shay]

Huh?

 

Almost all languages have some provision for "moving" objects on the screen...or even printing characters on the screen that gives the illusion of movement.

 

Can you be more specific?

[Rocko]

I guess like zzt, how everything moves.

[Nukey Shay]

Right, but what I am saying is that most all languages are able to do that. Here is a Basic example:

 

10 X=0:Y=0:GOTO 110

20 D=PEEK(KEYBOARD)

30 X=X+(D=RKEY)-(D=LKEY)

40 Y=Y+(D=DKEY)-(D=UKEY)

50 IF XX=X AND YY=Y THEN 20

60 IF X<0 THEN X=0

70 IF Y<0 THEN Y=0

80 IF X>=CHARLINE THEN X=CHARLINE-1

90 IF Y>=CHARROWS THEN Y=CHARROWS-1

100 POKE SCREEN+XX+CHARLINE*YY,BLANK

110 POKE SCREEN+X+CHARLINE*Y,OBJECT

120 XX=X:YY=Y

130 GOTO 20

 

Varibles that you need to define:

SCREEN is the starting memory location of screen Ram

BLANK is the value of the space character...usually 0 or 32

OBJECT is the value of whatever character you want to move around

CHARLINE is the number of text columns available on the screen

CHARROWS is the number of text rows available on the screen

KEYBOARD is the memory location that holds the value of the key pressed

UKEY, DKEY, LKEY, RKEY are the values of the keys you want to use to move

 

 

This program will work for most Basic versions.

[Rocko]

Can you do that in MOUSE?

[Nukey Shay]

I dunno enough about Mouse to answer that. Did you ever check around for that book?

 

Are languages like Basic or Logo really all that difficult to learn?

[Rocko]

Oops, forgot to do that.

 

I already know basic.

[Nukey Shay]

That would be my first guess...since documentation is so hard to dig up for Mouse and that book was written by its creator.

[Rocko]

Thanks.