The Sinclair QL Forum

AI (perplexity.ai) is great! Asked "Is there a description for the line number table of SuperBASIC which is pointed to by BV.LNBAS" and follow up question "How does the line number table in SuperBASIC work" and one of the sources perplexity showed was :-)

The link has been removed, as the book can still be bought on Amazon for Kindle (there are also Reading Apps for Windows, Mac, ...) available.
The link I bought it on Amazon.de is:

https://www.amazon.de/QL-SuperBASIC-Definitive-Handbook-English-ebook/dp/B00P569EH4/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=3PRN8EIM34APG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cfa6mx2Z48aJqxeSxdRo2xSTO5v1p1dbFKKOypuOO90.VECBRGiXYqdfozqiTEvM2SBYdwHyGVG4eKMfE6igCco&dib_tag=se&keywords=QL+SuperBASIC+-+The+Definitive+Handbook&qid=1743843720&s=amazon-devices&sprefix=ql+superbasic+-+the+definitive+handbook%2Camazon-devices%2C71&sr=1-1

Another link (posted by NormanDunbar) see below is: https://www.amazon.co.uk/QL-SuperBASIC- ... 00P569EH4/

What a great Book! I always thought, it is just an exact Description for SuperBASIC for normal programmers. But it is also has detailed information, how SuperBASIC is implemented, the memory structure, ...

And I found one thing I doesn't know about GO TO and GO SUB: The expression following GO TO/SUB must NOT be an existing line number :-D
If the line number of the expression does not exist, GO TO automatically goes to the next higher line number. This is neither documented in the QL User Guide Keyword section nor in the SuperBASIC Reference Manual Online Documentation. Example: You can even renumber this program and it will still be working. E.g. "renum 100 to ;1000".

EDIT:
2025-04-05 Sat (after pub): Detected a nice Web-site, which I didn't know previously: https://k1.spdns.de/Vintage/Sinclair/Other%20Computers/QL/. Especially the page "QDOS.html" seems to be interesting. Maybe it's from Rainer Kowallik (unfortunately I never met him personally) of Berlin who wrote the first Amiga QL-Emulator.

I'm pretty sure Jan Jones would be a tad miffed at the fact her copyrighted book is available for download without her permission. It's still available to buy on Amazon (UK at least) for a good, low, price on Kindle format. Kindle can be converted to other formats using the Calibre application.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/QL-SuperBASIC- ... 00P569EH4/

Cheers,
Norm.

It looks like the Kindle version is free.

The book is / was indeed still for sale.

I also found a scanned copy in a emulator package.

Wicksy wrote:The book is / was indeed still for sale.

I also found a scanned copy in a emulator package.

It's not that hard to find in hard copy, I've sold at least 2 recently!

If it's still available, I will buy it. BTW: The version linked is just a scan (picture), so you cannot search in it.

I bought two copies of the original McGraw-Hill publication years ago but they are lost somewhere in my loft.

I downloaded the Sector Software reprint from the posted link because although I can understand less than 10% of it I found the introduction an interesting read.

To allay any feelings of guilt I paid Amazon for its Kindle version. I don't have a kindle and will never buy one but I quite like PDFs as an alternative to the real thing. The fact that the file is not searchable does not worry me.

The Kindle version is only free to those that have Kindle Unlimited, whatever that is.

 
Interesting is, that the AI (at least perplexity.ai) gets its "intelligence" even from scanned paper prints, i.e. they must use OCR. BTW: I have removed the download link in the start post and added links to the Amazon-offer.

Tinyfpga wrote: Sat Apr 05, 2025 10:16 am I downloaded the Sector Software reprint from the posted link because although I can understand less than 10% of it I found the introduction an interesting read.

To allay any feelings of guilt I paid Amazon for its Kindle version. I don't have a kindle and will never buy one but I quite like PDFs as an alternative to the real thing. The fact that the file is not searchable does not worry me.

I used Calibre to convert the Kindle file to PDF - now the PDF is searchable and also has Index.

Andrew wrote: Sat Apr 05, 2025 12:18 pm I used Calibre to convert the Kindle file to PDF - now the PDF is searchable and also has Index.

Hello Andrew,

where can I find the Kindle file? I have no Kindle but just the Kindle for PC (Windows) Reader from Amazon. Can I read the book with Calibre?

Have found it: The books are stored in/below C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Kindle Content\

Have converted it to PDF but I have no index. How did you get the index?