USE

Syntax

USE [ #channel ]

Location

USE (DIY Toolkit - Vol C)

Many commands and functions which are described in this manual, expect a channel number to be passed to them and if one is not supplied, will default to a specific channel. This command can be used to re-direct all machine code commands and functions which normally default to #1.

After using this command, if a channel parameter is not specified, the commands and functions will then default to the channel specified by USE instead of #1. Also, even if you explicitly pass a channel number #1 as a parameter to a command or function, then the command or function will still be re-directed to the channel specified by USE. If no parameter is specified, then this is equivalent to USE #1.

Example

PRINT 'This is channel #1': USE #2: PRINT 'This is using Channel #2'
PRINT #1, 'This is still channel #2' USE: PRINT 'This is channel #1 again!'

NOTE

There is a slight difficulty in using this command in that when you USE #1 some of the information used by SuperBASIC for the channel which you have been using as the default will be lost. This is the last graphics co-ordinates, turtle graphics direction, pen status, character position on line and line width for files (set with WIDTH) will be lost. You will also lose the original values for these offsets for channel #1 (ie. the values which were in use prior to the USE #ch command). Instead, the values are set to pen up, position 0,0, width 80, direction left-to-right. You can use:

PEEK_W(\48\chan*40+offset)

to store these values before the USE call and then restore them with POKE. Refer to QDOS/SMS Reference Manual Section 18.4.1 to find out how these values are stored.

WARNING

If used from within a SMS SBASIC, v0.2 (at least) of this command will crash the computer when output is redirected to #1 using either USE or USE#1. The problem only occurs when you try to send output to #1.

CROSS-REFERENCE

PRINT,CSIZE,INK,PAPER andSTRIP are just a few of the commands which default to #1 and are therefore affected by this command.