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The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

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Statements and Functions Used for Device Input/Output
 
                     Statement or
Task                 function         Action
═════════════        ══════════════   ═════════════════════════════════════
Displaying text      PRINT            Outputs data to the screen.
and numbers on
the screen
                     PRINT USING      Outputs strings or numbers using a
                                      specified format.
 
Changing the width   WIDTH            Assigns an output-line width to a
                                      device (such as a printer) or to a
                                      file, or changes the number of
                                      columns and lines displayed on the
                                      screen.
 
Getting input from   INKEY$           Reads a character from the keyboard.
the keyboard
 
                     INPUT$           Returns a string of characters read
                                      characters read from the specified
                                      file.
 
                     INPUT            Reads input from the keyboard and
                                      stores it in a list of variables.
 
                     LINE INPUT       Reads a line of input from the
                                      keyboard and stores it in a single
                                      string variable.
 
Positioning the      LOCATE           Moves the cursor to the specified
cursor on the                         position on the screen.
screen
                     SPC              Skips spaces in printed output.
 
                     TAB              Displays printed output in a given
                                      column.
 
Getting information  CSRLIN           Tells which row cursor is in.
about the cursor's
location
                     POS(n)           Tells which column cursor is in.
 
 
Creating a text      VIEW PRINT       Sets the top and bottom rows for
viewport                              displaying text output.
 
Clearing a screen    CLS              Clears various parts of the display
                                      screen.
 
Waiting for Dev I/O  WAIT             Suspends program execution while
                                      monitoring the status of a machine input
                                      port.