Msg: 4597 *Conference*
08-13-93 13:59:13
From: ROBERT BENSON
To : CARROLL LEWIS
Subj: REPLY TO MSG #4596 (FILE STORAGE)
----- Carroll: When you download or write a Basic program it's in a english syntex, that is it uses words! When you save a program to BASIC the words are converted to a single byte or "token" of which there are a possible 256 (0 to 255). These are the same bytes that are used to generate alphanumeric characters, graphics characters, code characters and control codes in TEXT however they are interpreted as commands by BASIC except those that are within quotes which are displayed as text. It's not machine code however the same bytes are used for instructions or "mnemonics" in machine language programs, the difference being that you're addressing the CPU directly when running a machine language program and not going through the Basic Interpreter. Hope this helps, Robert