Working with BASIC Files

Files containing BASIC programs can be modified in various ways.

BASIC files can be edited using any text editor using the edit command:

(cbm) edit example.prg

To select the program used as the editor either set the editor variable:

(cbm) set editor vim
editor - was: 'emacs'
now: 'vim'

or set the EDITOR environment variable before starting cbm-shell.

Separate files can be merged together using the merge command:

(cbm) merge partA.prg partB.prg partC.prg

The lines in partB.prg and partC.prg are added to those in partA.prg and the result saved back to partA.prg. Lines present in later files replace those in earlier files.

The line numbers of a program can be renumbered to make more space between lines or to merge with another file using the renumber command:

(cbm) list example.prg
400 REM EXAMPLE
401 A=A+1
402 PRINTA;
403 GOTO401
(cbm) renumber example.prg
Reading example.prg
Renumbering starting at 10, increments of 10
Writing example.prg
(cbm) list example.prg
10 REM EXAMPLE
20 A=A+1
30 PRINTA;
40 GOTO20

The first line number used can be specified with the --start argument, the interval between lines with the --increment argument.

By default the whole program is renumbered, a subset of lines can be renumbered, the beginning can be specified with the --region_start argument and the end with the --region_end argument. The new line numbers must not overlap with lines outside the region.