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Colons in AppleSoft

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  Colons in AppleSoft Tom Thumb <justliketomsthumbsblues@gmail.com> - 2022-08-02 14:15 -0700
    Re: Colons in AppleSoft Jeff Blakeney <CUTjeffrey_blakeney@yahoo.ca> - 2022-08-02 19:01 -0400
      Re: Colons in AppleSoft Tom Thumb <justliketomsthumbsblues@gmail.com> - 2022-08-02 16:13 -0700
        Re: Colons in AppleSoft qkumba <peter.ferrie@gmail.com> - 2022-08-03 08:48 -0700
      Re: Colons in AppleSoft D Finnigan <dog_cow@macgui.com> - 2022-08-03 20:35 +0000
        Re: Colons in AppleSoft Martin Doherty <martindoherty377@gmail.com> - 2022-09-28 12:45 -0700

#5979 — Colons in AppleSoft

I was entering lines in AppleSoft from an Open Apple issue. Some lines begin with colons such as:

350 : GOSUB 1000
440 :: GOSUB 1000

I know a colon separates statements on the same line but what are they doing it the above statements? Adding empty statements? For what purpose?

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#5980

On 2022-08-02 5:15 p.m., Tom Thumb wrote:
> I was entering lines in AppleSoft from an Open Apple issue. Some lines begin with colons such as:
> 
> 350 : GOSUB 1000
> 440 :: GOSUB 1000
> 
> I know a colon separates statements on the same line but what are they doing it the above statements? Adding empty statements? For what purpose?

It is possible they were just trying to indent the code to make it look 
more like a structured listing to make it easier to find sections.

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#5981

> It is possible they were just trying to indent the code to make it look 
> more like a structured listing to make it easier to find sections.

Hmm, I guess, thank you. I removed them all and the code runs the same, so, no functional purpose other than what you suggest. Again, hmm.
I felt a little silly for asking, but, I'm impulsive.

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#5982

Depending on the source, it might be bad OCR, or there might have been code in the original that was erased with a hex-editor, but leaving the colons in place to prevent syntax errors.

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#5983

Jeff Blakeney wrote:
> On 2022-08-02 5:15 p.m., Tom Thumb wrote:
>> I was entering lines in AppleSoft from an Open Apple issue. Some lines
>> begin with colons such as:
>> 
>> 350 : GOSUB 1000
>> 440 :: GOSUB 1000
>> 
>> I know a colon separates statements on the same line but what are they
>> doing it the above statements? Adding empty statements? For what purpose?
> 
> It is possible they were just trying to indent the code to make it look 
> more like a structured listing to make it easier to find sections.
>

I agree. This is a technique that I've seen before in Applesoft listings.

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#5988

On Wednesday, August 3, 2022 at 4:35:24 PM UTC-4, D Finnigan wrote:
> Jeff Blakeney wrote: 
> > On 2022-08-02 5:15 p.m., Tom Thumb wrote: 
> >> I was entering lines in AppleSoft from an Open Apple issue. Some lines 
> >> begin with colons such as: 
> >> 
> >> 350 : GOSUB 1000 
> >> 440 :: GOSUB 1000 
> >> 
> >> I know a colon separates statements on the same line but what are they 
> >> doing it the above statements? Adding empty statements? For what purpose? 
> > 
> > It is possible they were just trying to indent the code to make it look 
> > more like a structured listing to make it easier to find sections. 
> >
> I agree. This is a technique that I've seen before in Applesoft listings.
I also agree with Jeff and Dave, it's just a programming workaround to provide a little bit of code indenting in a language that doesn't natively support doing that. There would be a slight performance penalty, but probably very little

A guy named Andres Lozano built a nice pre-processor for Applesoft that lets you code in a virtualized, improved language he calls Virtual Basic which it translates into standard Applesoft for execution. Just thought I'd mention it for those of us who wish we could indent our Applesoft code :)
https://virtualbasic.org/

rem my main program
print "this is my first test"
gosub @printhello
end
 
rem my subroutine
#printhello
    s$ = "hello world"
    print s$
    a= 10:b= 5
    print a + b
return

--Martin

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