=,1,7,4,11,1,14,1
0,0,17,79,0,Compatibility Issues,F

As   you  will  see  from  the  BetterBASIC  tutorial,  we  have  designed
BetterBASIC to provide  a  whole  new  range  of  structured  and  modular
programming concepts ON TOP OF a Microsoft-like root level.

The question is now: How compatible is BetterBASIC, and what are the major
differences ?

Some of the incompatibilities arise from the structure of BetterBASIC
itself, other are caused by BetterBASIC offering very much "cleaner"
solutions to some of Microsoft BASIC's "kludgy" mechanisms.


!		      Here are the major differemces:

%
==
0,0,23,79,0,,C
=,7,1,14,7,1,14,0
0,0,15,60,0,String Size Declarations,F

In  Microsoft  BASIC,  if  a  string  is assigned a value
longer than its current size, the old  storage  space  is
discarded and a new space allocated for that string.

In  BetterBASIC  strings  are of fixed size and cannot be
assigned values beyond the declared size.  You must think
ahead and plan the size of text string varaibles.

%
2,4,17,64,0,The DEF FN Statement,F

BetterBASIC  supports  TRUE  named  Functions,  with  any
number of arguments  and  Local  Variables.   BetterBASIC
Functions can contain any number of lines of code.

			 - and -

!	 BetterBASIC functions can be RECURSIVE

This  capability  is far superior to the one-liner DEF FN
statement in Microsoft BASIC.
%
4,8,19,68,0,GET - PUT - MKI$ - CVI -FIELD etc.,F

These statements are not supported in BetterBASIC.

Instead,  BetterBASIC  provides  very  much easier to use
data types and statements to  achieve  the  same  result.
BetterBASIC   allows  you  to  define  structured  RECORD
Variables, with properly named FIELDS.

RECORD  Variables (and other data types, for that matter)
can be read from and written to disk using  BetterBASIC's
'READ RECORD' and 'WRITE RECORD' statements.

%
6,12,21,72,0,Other Differences,F

!			  DATA
BetterBASIC requires quotes around strings.

!			DEFtype

Use BetterBASIC's INTEGER, REAL, STRING declarations.

!		 BLOAD, BSAVE, DEF USR

Use  BetterBASIC's  CODE  command  which  provides a much
simpler  way  to  load   and   call   Assembly   Language
procedures.
%
8,16,23,76,0,Other Differences,F

!			  DRAW
The A, T and X commands are not supported.

!		      FOR ... NEXT
BetterBASIC  does  not  require a variable after the
NEXT.
!			  INPUT
To  suppress  the  question mark which is normally issued
you must enter a null string prompt "".   On  error,  the
input  statement will not not be retried unless a "?"  is
placed immediately after the INPUT keyword.
%
=,7,1,14,7,1,14,0
0,0,15,60,0,Other Differences,F

!			  MERGE
Use BetterBASIC's LOAD command.

!		ON COM - ON KEY - ON PLAY

These   statements   vector   to   designated   INTERRUPT
PROCEDURES instead of Line Numbers.

%
2,4,17,64,0,Other Differences,F

!			  SAVE
This command saves the program in binary format. Use LIST
ALL to save a BetterBASIC program in ASCII format.

!			 WINDOW
The BetterBASIC WINDOW function returns the number of the
currently active window. There is no statement which
performs the same function as Microsoft BASIC's WINDOW
statement.

!			 SCREEN
BetterBASIC supports only a single diplay page
%
4,8,19,68,0,NOT SUPPORTED,F

!       The following statements are not supported:


CDBL		CONT		CSGN
MOTOR		PEN		STICK
TRON		TROFF		VIEW

%
=,11,0,0,14,1,0,0
6,10,18,66,0,,F


====================================================

We  suggest  that you use this BetterBASIC sample to
explore  any  differences  which  may   affect   any
programs that you wish to convert to BetterBASIC.

====================================================
#