MS-DOS QuickBasic 4.00 Differs from XENIX Basic Compiler 5.70 (37340)

SUMMARY

This article compares Microsoft Basic Compiler versions 5.70 and 5.70a for XENIX 286 to the following compilers:

Microsoft QuickBasic versions 4.00, 4.00b, 4.50 for MS-DOS
Microsoft Basic Compiler versions 6.00 and 6.00b for MS-DOS

Microsoft Basic Compiler for XENIX 286 provides a library for ISAM file handling that is not available with the above Microsoft Basic compilers for MS-DOS.

Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) versions 7.00 and 7.10 provide ISAM file support under MS-DOS (and under MS OS/2 in Basic 7.10). Basic PDS 7.00 and 7.10 offer additional features beyond those found in 6.00 and 6.00b.

The Basic compilers for MS-DOS have a graphic capability not found in the XENIX Basic compiler.

Compilers under both XENIX and MS-DOS have SUB...END SUB structures for defining subprograms, which can be called with the CALL statement.

MORE INFORMATION

Note: All support and upgrades for Microsoft Basic Compilers and Interpreters for XENIX have been assumed by SCO (the Santa Cruz Operation). For more information on XENIX Basic and SCO, query on the following words:

SCO and XENIX and Basic and support

The list below outlines commands that differ between the Basic compiler for XENIX versus the Basic products for MS-DOS.

An asterisk (*) marks words that are reserved, but not functionally implemented in the compiler.

Reserved words in Microsoft Basic Compiler version 6.00b for MS-DOS or QuickBasic version 4.50 that are not found in Microsoft Basic Compiler version 5.70a for XENIX are as follows:

   ACCESS      ALIAS       ANY         BEEP      BINARY
   BLOAD       BSAVE       BYVAL       CASE      CDECL
   CIRCLE      CLNG        COLOR       COM       COMMAND$
   CONST       CSRLIN      CVDMBF      CVSMBF    DECLARE
   DEFLNG      DO          DOUBLE      DRAW      ELSEIF
   ENVIRON     ENVIRON$    ERDEV       ERDEV$    EXIT
   FILEATTR    FREEFILE    FUNCTION    INP       INTEGER
   IOCTL       IOTCL$      IS          KEY       LCASE$
   * LIST      LOCAL       LONG        LOOP      LTRIM$
   MKDMBF$     MKL$        MKSMBF$     OFF       OUT
   PAINT       PALETTE     PCOPY       PEN       PLAY
   PMAP        PRESET      PSET        RANDOM    REDIM
   RTRIM$      SCREEN      SEEK        SEG       SELECT
   SETMEM      SHARED      SIGNAL      SINGLE    SLEEP
   SOUND       STATIC      STICK       STRING    TYPE
   UCASE$      UNTIL       VARPTR$     VARSEG    VIEW
   WINDOW

Reserved words in Microsoft Basic Compiler version 5.70a for XENIX that are not reserved in Microsoft Basic Compiler version 6.00b for MS-DOS or QuickBasic version 4.50 are as follows:

   * DELETE
   * EDIT
   * USR