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Comments
Text that is preceded by the keyword Rem or an apostrophe (') will be seen as a comment and not executed. You can use comments to annotate your scripts.
' This is a comment
rem This too
REM This too
Rem This too
As you can see, the Rem statement is not case-sensitive. This is the same with all keywords in SoftMaker Basic.
Comments can also be placed at the end of a line:
MsgBox Msg ' Display message
The text after the apostrophe is a comment.
Multiple statements in a line
You can place several statements on the same line, separating them by colons:
X.AddPoint(25,100) : Y.AddPoint(0,75)
... is identical to ...
X.AddPoint(25,100)
Y.AddPoint(0,75)
Statements spanning several lines
You can make a statement span several lines by ending each line except the last with a space and an underscore (_).
Print _
"Hello!"
... is identical to ...
Print "Hello!"
Numbers
You can write numbers in three different ways: decimal, octal and hexadecimal:
▪Decimal numbers: Most of the examples in this manual employ decimal numbers (base 10).
▪Octal numbers: If you would like to use octal numbers (base 8), place &O in front of the number – for example &O37.
▪Hexadecimal numbers: For hexadecimal numbers (base 16), use the prefix &H – for example &H1F.
Names
Variables, constants, subroutines and functions are addressed by their names. The following naming conventions apply:
▪Only the letters A-Z and a-z, underscores (_) and the digits 0-9 are allowed.
▪Names are not case-sensitive.
▪The first letter of a name must always be a letter.
▪The length may not exceed 40 characters.
▪Keywords of SoftMaker Basic may not be used.