• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• Line Syntax
• Statement Syntax
• Expression Syntax
• Identifier Syntax
• Token Syntax

NAME

Syntax - Pod file describing syntax understood by Language::Basic module

SYNOPSIS

There is no Language::Basic::Syntax module. This is just a pod file describing the syntax that's supported by the Language::Basic module.

DESCRIPTION

Things in italics are objects. Things in boldface are actual strings (reserved words or punctuation). ``[]'' means optional, ``...'' means optionally more copies of the same thing, and things between slashes that look like Perl regexps are Perl regexps.

This syntax description probably isn't exactly correct from a computer science standpoint, but the idea is just to show what LB supports.

Line Syntax

Line:

Line_Num Statement [: Statement ...]

Statement Syntax

• DATA Constant [ , Constant ...]

• DIM Var-Name [ Arglist ] [ , Var-Name [ Arglist ] ...]

  Arglist must be made up of constant arithmetic expressions.

• DEF Func-Name ( Var-Name [ , Var-Name ...] ) = Arith-Exp

  Var-Names must be scalar variables.

• END

• FOR Lvalue = Arith-Exp TO Arith-Exp [ STEP Arith-Exp]

• GOTO Arith-Exp

• IF Or-Exp THEN Statement [ : Statement ...] [ ELSE Statement [ : Statement ...]]

  IF Or-Exp THEN Line_Num [ ELSE Line_Num ]

• INPUT [ Str-Const ; ] Lvalue [ , Lvalue ...]

• [LET] Lvalue = Arith-Exp

• NEXT Lvalue

• ON Arith-Exp GOTO/GOSUB Arith-Exp [ , Arith-Exp ...]

• PRINT [ Expression [ Print_Sep ] [ Expression [ Print_Sep ] ...] ]

• READ Lvalue [ , Lvalue ...]

• Comment

Expression Syntax

Note that, unlike C or Perl, Boolean values cannot be ``cast'' to non-Boolean (string or numeric) values and vice versa.

By the way, the classes in module Language::Basic::Expression rather closely mimic this syntax description.

Expression:

Arith-Exp

Or-Exp

Arithmetic Expression:

Mult-Exp Arith-Op Mult-Exp

String-Exp + String-Exp

Multiplicative Expression:

Unary-Exp Mult-Op Unary-Exp

Unary Expression:

- Unary-Exp

(Arith-Exp)

Lvalue

Function

Constant

Lvalue:

Var-Name [ Arglist ]

Arglist:

( Expression [ , Expression ...] )

Function:

Func-Name Arglist

Constant:

Str-Const

Num-Const

String Expression:

Str-Const

Arith-Exp

The Arith-Exp must be made from Str-Exps.

Logical Or Expression:

And-Exp [ OR Or-Exp ]

Logical And Expression:

Rel-Exp [ AND And-Exp ]

Relational Expression:

NOT Rel-Exp

Arith-Exp Rel-Op Arith-Exp

String-Exp Rel-Op String-Exp

( Or-Exp )

Identifier Syntax

Variable Name:

Numeric Identifier

String Identifier

Function Name:

/FN[A-Z]\w+/

Numeric Identifier:

/[A-Z]\w*/

String Identifier:

/[A-Z]\w*\$/

Token Syntax

Tokens, or atoms, are indivisible pieces of text making up a BASIC program

(Note: Language::Basic only pays attention to case in string constants.)

Line Number:

/\d+/

Comment:

REM /.*/

Note that a comment goes all the way to the end of a line. Colons in a comment do not start a new statement.

Keyword:

DATA | DIM | DEF | END | FOR | GOSUB | GOTO | IF | INPUT | LET | NEXT | ON | PRINT | READ | RETURN | THEN | ELSE | TO | STEP

Numeric Constant:

/(\d*)?\.?\d+/

String Constant:

/``.*?''/

Relational Operator:

< | <= | > | >= | = | <>

Arithmetic Operator:

+ | -

Multiplicative Operator:

* | /

Print Separator:

, | ;