CURSOR

Syntax

CURSOR [#channel,] [grx, gry,] x,y or

CURSOR [#channel,] flag (Btool only)

Location

QL ROM, Btool

The CURSOR command allows you to set the text cursor to a specific position in the given window (default #1). Any text which is then printed will appear with the given position at its top left corner.

The values x and y specify the position in pixel co-ordinates relative to the origin of the specified window (eg. if the window #1 was defined as scr_448x200a32x16, the command CURSOR 224,100 will set the text position to the exact centre of the window).

However, for the more adventurous, CURSOR can take an additional two parameters which allow you to mix text and graphics on a given window more easily. This sets the text cursor to the graphics co-ordinate (grx,gry) and then uses the x and y parameters to specify a relative pixel offset from this graphics co-ordinate (a positive value of x moves the text cursor to the right, a negative value to the left; whereas a positive value of y moves the text cursor down, a negative value up).

The second variant only works with the Btool Toolkit. This allows you to enable or disable the cursor in the specified window (default #1), by specifying a flag of 1 to enable the cursor or 0 to disable the cursor.

Example

This program shows all the 45 degree angles in a circle:

100 MODE 4:WINDOW 448,200,32,16
110 PAPER 0:INK 7:CLS
120 SCALE 200,-150,-100
130 FOR i=0 TO 315 STEP 45
140   INK 7:LINE 0,0 TO SIN(RAD(i))*50,COS(RAD(i))*50
150   xoff=0:yoff=0
160   SELect ON i
170     =0:xoff=-4:yoff=-9
180     =45:yoff=-9
190     =90:yoff=-4
200     =180:xoff=-10
210     =225:xoff=-20
220     =270:xoff=-20:yoff=-4
230     =315:xoff=-20:yoff=-9
240   END SELect
250   INK 4:CURSOR SIN(RAD(i))*50,COS(RAD(i))*50,xoff,yoff
260   PRINT i
270 END FOR i

NOTE 1

On pre MG ROMs, the CURSOR command only allows a maximum of four parameters, which means that you can only use grx, gry, x and y on the default channel. You can however use commands such as CURSOR #3,200,40,3 - although this is not supported on Minerva (pre v1.98) and SMSQ/E and should be avoided! If you specify a fifth parameter, a ‘Bad Parameter’ error will be reported. The Btool variant fixes this as does SMS, MG ROMs and Minerva. Compiling with Q-Liberator does not prevent this error.

NOTE 2

The graphics positioning did not work on ST/QL Emulators with Drivers prior to Level D-15 (or E-15).

NOTE 3

Compilers will not accept the second syntax.

NOTE 4

As from SMS v2.74 CURSOR limits grx to even positions to make in compatible with MODE 8 and MODE 4 automatically.

CROSS-REFERENCE

Please refer to PRINT, LEFT and AT.

CURSEN is a more compatible means of enabling a cursor.