I have been looking at the keyboard scancodes for the keys Alt-A to Alt-Z and found no pattern to them!

Are they internal to the electronic keyboard itself?

Thanks, Erik.

Here is a program to trap and display them:

Quick BASIC Programming for Scientists and Engineers :  CRC-Press; 1st edition (January 1, 1993)
This is a pretty hopeful request, but does anyone know if the modules (.bas files) for this book are available anywhere on the web?
The book originally came with a (yes) 5-1/4 inch floppy disk with the files.  I no longer have such a drive, but hope the files reside somewhere.
Thanks in advance if you have any information.  I would love to work through the programs being an engineer by trade.
PS - Uses QBasic 4.0 and book is 30 years old, but very relevant still.

This is a program that could make life a bit easier to navigate "archive-dot-org" if the user is only looking to download music or video.

N.B. This requires a bit of research to configure the program as desired. As it stands it only works for audio (FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV etc.) This research is to obtain the "subjects" which are tags that have to be written precisely into a web address. On "archive-dot-org" some categories are written out like plain English, capitalized short phrases with spaces, which cannot stand into a web address. The site has a chooser of subjects which puts down stuff which could be unpredictable. (Sometimes it chooses "multiple categories" which is the same word or words but in different upper-lower-case combinations.) Therefore the user must tinker a little bit to obtain a subject tag for use with this program. It's a vain attempt to make this program more flexible.

This program requires one text file, and it's recommended to provide another. The required file has one line which is the full path of the executable to the web browser. Because I programmed this on Linux, I'm not familiar with a way to launch the web browser from an user's QB64 program on MacOS or on Windows. I also programmed to launch the AppImage which might appear clumsy to some of you. This file is not provided, you will have to create it. It is called "helparchorg-browser.txt", it must reside in the same directory as the executable. This program only reads the first line of this file, so make sure it has a correct entry.

It's recommended to have also "helparchorg-category.txt". It could also be called "helparchorg-subject.txt". Here you will put down a subject, one per line, for the media that is sought. If you want two categories at a time then put each tag joined by a plus sign. At the moment no more than two categories could be joined.

The program reads the text files, tells the user that it found the web browser, and then shows a menu with the categories. If there's only one then it's "electronic", at the moment, but this could be changed in the source code. The user types in a number for the subject or subjects he/she desires and presses [ENTER]. Pressing [ENTER] with no entry quits the program.

After that, the user is asked what year of creation or release for the media sought, starting with 2013. Again, this could be modified in the source code. Type in the menu choice for the year, not the year itself LOL, and press [ENTER]. Press [ENTER] without entry at this point to leave the program.

This program then launches the web browser with the address fabricated from the data it was given.

'by mnrvovrfc 6-July-2023

OPTION _EXPLICIT



DIM AS INTEGER c, lsubj, j, plu

DIM prefx$, afile$, launchprog$, comd$, asubj$, ayear$, entry$

DIM fe AS LONG



prefx$ = "helparchorg-"

afile$ = prefx$ + "browser.txt"

IF NOT _FILEEXISTS(afile$) THEN

    PRINT "The web browser wasn't found! Aborting."

    END

END IF



fe = FREEFILE

OPEN afile$ FOR INPUT AS fe

DO UNTIL EOF(fe)

    LINE INPUT #fe, entry$

    entry$ = _TRIM$(entry$)

    IF entry$ <> "" AND launchprog$ = "" THEN

        launchprog$ = entry$

        EXIT DO

    END IF

LOOP

CLOSE fe



IF NOT _FILEEXISTS(launchprog$) THEN

    PRINT "The web browser wasn't found! Aborting."

    END

END IF



PRINT "Discovered web browser executable called:"

PRINT launchprog$



afile$ = prefx$ + "subject.txt"

IF NOT _FILEEXISTS(afile$) THEN

    afile$ = prefx$ + "category.txt"

END IF

IF _FILEEXISTS(afile$) THEN

    fe = FREEFILE

    OPEN afile$ FOR INPUT AS fe

    DO UNTIL EOF(fe)

        LINE INPUT #fe, entry$

        entry$ = _TRIM$(entry$)

        IF entry$ <> "" THEN lsubj = lsubj + 1

    LOOP

    CLOSE fe

    IF lsubj < 1 THEN

        PRINT "At least one entry required from input file!"

        END

    END IF

    REDIM subj(1 TO lsubj) AS STRING

    c = 0

    fe = FREEFILE

    OPEN afile$ FOR INPUT AS fe

    DO UNTIL EOF(fe)

        LINE INPUT #fe, entry$

        entry$ = _TRIM$(entry$)

        IF entry$ <> "" THEN

            c = c + 1

            subj(c) = entry$

        END IF

    LOOP

    CLOSE fe

ELSE

    lsubj = 1

    REDIM subj(1 TO lsubj) AS STRING

    subj(lsubj) = "electronic"

END IF



PRINT "*** archive-dot-org helper ***"

IF lsubj = 1 THEN

    PRINT: PRINT "There's only one category available: "; subj(1)

    asubj$ = subj(1)

ELSE

    PRINT: PRINT "Please choose your category."

    FOR j = 1 TO lsubj

        PRINT USING "(##)"; j;

        PRINT " "; subj(j)

    NEXT

    LINE INPUT entry$

    entry$ = _TRIM$(entry$)

    IF entry$ = "" THEN SYSTEM

    c = VAL(entry$)

    IF c > 0 AND c <= lsubj THEN

        asubj$ = subj(c)

    ELSE

        PRINT "Incorrect input given! Aborting."

        END

    END IF

END IF



PRINT: PRINT "Please choose the year of release."

FOR j = 2013 TO 2023

    PRINT USING "(####)"; j - 2012;

    PRINT " "; j

NEXT

LINE INPUT entry$

entry$ = _TRIM$(entry$)

IF entry$ = "" THEN SYSTEM

c = VAL(entry$)

IF c > 0 AND c < 12 THEN

    ayear$ = _TRIM$(STR$(c + 2012))

ELSE

    PRINT "Incorrect input given! Aborting."

    END

END IF



comd$ = launchprog$ + " 'https://archive.org/details/audio?and[]=year%3A%22" + ayear$ + _

"%22&and[]=mediatype%3A%22audio%22&and[]=subject%3A%22"

plu = INSTR(asubj$, "+")

IF plu > 0 THEN

    comd$ = comd$ + LEFT$(asubj$, plu - 1) + "%22&and[]=subject%3A%22" + MID$(asubj$, plu + 1) + "%22'"

ELSE

    comd$ = comd$ + asubj$ + "%22'"

END IF

SHELL _HIDE _DONTWAIT comd$

SYSTEM

Anybody have any clever ideas on how one would get the IDE to reload a program when it was run? The program in question actually updates  itself when it runs, and I was just wondering if there was a way to get the ide to reload the code so I wouldn't forget to reload it and go change some code save it and destroy the changes the program made last time it ran.

Can this be sped up?   The code below calculates the first 45 anti-primes in ~6.3 seconds on my W11 PC. 
Definition of anti-primes: A natural number that has more divisors (factors, not just prime factors) than any number less that it. For example, 6 has 4 factors, including 1 and itself, and this is more than 1,2,3 or 5 which have only the minimum of 2 factors and 4 which has 3 factors.

'Anti-Primes: Calculate first 45 anti-primes

'date of code: 06 JUL 2023

'Space Ghost (modified QBasic 4.5 from Rosetta Code)



'HOUSEKEEPING -----------------------------------

$CONSOLE:ONLY

OPTION _EXPLICIT

CLS



'VARIABLE DECLARATIONS  -------------------------

DIM t AS DOUBLE

DIM tmp AS STRING

DIM AS INTEGER MaxAntiPrime, AntiPrimeCount

DIM AS LONG MaxDivisors, Divisors, n



'MAIN BLOCK  ------------------------------------

t = TIMER(0.001)



MaxAntiPrime = 45

n = 0

MaxDivisors = 0

AntiPrimeCount = 0



PRINT "The first 45 anti-primes are:"

PRINT



WHILE AntiPrimeCount < MaxAntiPrime

    n = n + 1

    Divisors = DivisorCount(n)

    IF Divisors > MaxDivisors THEN

        PRINT n;

        MaxDivisors = Divisors

        AntiPrimeCount = AntiPrimeCount + 1

    END IF

WEND



PRINT: PRINT

tmp = "Execution Time in secs:##.###"

PRINT USING tmp; TIMER(0.001) - t



END



'FUNCTIONS AND SUBROUTINES ----------------------

FUNCTION DivisorCount (v)

    DIM AS LONG total, count, n, p

    total = 1

    n = v

    WHILE n MOD 2 = 0

        total = total + 1

        n = n \ 2

    WEND

    p = 3

    WHILE (p * p) <= n

        count = 1

        WHILE n MOD p = 0

            count = count + 1

            n = n \ p

        WEND

        p = p + 2

        total = total * count

    WEND

    IF n > 1 THEN total = total * 2

    DivisorCount = total

END FUNCTION



'END OF PROGRAM  --------------------------------

Can somebody help me figure out the code to get a sprite to follow an ellipse? I've tried various methods with SIN() but can't quite pull it off, I am trying to recreate the effect in the attached gif

This is another program that would only display graphic silliness. Don't expected colored, fractal stuff; a program such as this might have been attempted with QuickBASIC or Turbo Pascal, trying to burn those weak single-core CPU's to a crisp. Many pictures are just an useless line at the top or at the side of the screen. Others are just near-diagonal lines. Others are "steps" as if trying to plot binary or something else. But there are a few good ones here.

The program tries to plot a function with 500 points of Cartesian coordinates taking part in a polar scheme. If the function is not plottable, it's skipped. The "Illegal function call" had to be trapped for it. The functions were fabricated from another QB64 program I wrote. Don't spend too much time looking at them or it will cause some loss of sanity!

Press [ESC] to quit, or on Linux leave it for long enough and then it seg-faults, I don't know why. (shrugs)

At the terminal command line it's possible to follow the executable file's name with an integer from 1 to 5000, to start from the function indicated by the huge "SELECT CASE... END SELECT" block. This has nothing to do with random numbers. It was already taken care of by my "extreme function maker" LOL.

That is the first parameter. There is a second parameter which is a float-type factor. The default is to just plot a circle with X,Y for 500 points. The circle is always created by this program with a "radius" of 2. The factor in this program can only cause the effect of an open shape. In other words, the chosen factor by the user cannot be smaller than the default value of 1.3888.

The actual program is too big to post into this forum, so I'm posting only a portion of it. Otherwise you will have to download the attachment.

'by mnrvovrfc 06-Jun-2023

option _explicit

dim v(1 to 500) as double

dim as double n, x, y, z, mult, factdiv, smaller, largger

dim as integer i, j, cn

dim redu$



if command$(1) = "" then

    cn = 1

else

    cn = val(command$(1))

    if cn = 0 then

        cn = 1

    elseif cn < 1 or cn > 5000 then

        cn = 1

    end if

end if

if command$(2) = "" then

    mult = 1.3888

else

    mult = val(command$(1))

    if mult < 1.3888 or mult > 5.0 then

        mult = 1.3888

    end if

end if



screen _newimage(1000, 500, 12)



for i = cn to 5000

on error goto 100

for z = 1 to 500

x = 2 * cos(_d2r(z / mult))

y = 2 * sin(_d2r(z / mult))

select case i

    case 1

        n = Z10B46#(x, y, z)

    case 2

        n = Z10B48#(x, y, z)

    case 3

        n = Z10B4A#(x, y, z)

    case 4

        n = Z10B4C#(x, y, z)

    case 5

        n = Z10B4E#(x, y, z)

    case 6

        n = Z10B50#(x, y, z)

    case 7

        n = Z10B52#(x, y, z)

    case 8

        n = Z10B54#(x, y, z)

    case 9

        n = Z10B56#(x, y, z)

    case 10

        n = Z10B58#(x, y, z)

'   :

'   :

    case 4990

        n = Z13240#(x, y, z)

    case 4991

        n = Z13242#(x, y, z)

    case 4992

        n = Z13244#(x, y, z)

    case 4993

        n = Z13246#(x, y, z)

    case 4994

        n = Z13248#(x, y, z)

    case 4995

        n = Z1324A#(x, y, z)

    case 4996

        n = Z1324C#(x, y, z)

    case 4997

        n = Z1324E#(x, y, z)

    case 4998

        n = Z13250#(x, y, z)

    case 4999

        n = Z13252#(x, y, z)

    case 5000

        n = Z13254#(x, y, z)

end select

endoflongcase:

v(z) = n

next



on error goto 0



smaller = 0

largger = 0

for z = 1 to 500

    if v(z) < smaller then smaller = v(z)

    if v(z) > largger then largger = v(z)

next



if int(smaller * 1e+6) = 0 and int(largger * 1e+6) = 0 then

    cls

    _continue

end if



redu$ = ""

if abs(smaller) > abs(largger) then factdiv = abs(smaller) else factdiv = abs(largger)

do while factdiv > 1e+6

    redu$ = "*"

    smaller = smaller / 100

    largger = largger / 100

    if abs(smaller) > abs(largger) then factdiv = abs(smaller) else factdiv = abs(largger)

loop



_title _trim$(str$(i)) + ": " + redu$ + "Smaller =" + str$(smaller) + "| " + redu$ + "Larger =" + str$(largger)

window screen(smaller, 1)-(largger, 500)



doscreen:

pset(v(1), 1), 15

for z = 2 to 500

    line -(v(z), z), 15

next



for j = 1 to 30

    _delay 0.1

    if _keydown(27) then exit for

next



cls

if _keydown(27) then exit for

next

system



100 n = 0

resume endoflongcase

'   :

'   :

'then what follows are the functions to plot graphs with.

https://basicanywheremachine-news.blogsp...s-and.html

This is a fireworks program I've been working on for some time; finally polished it up today in honor of the 4th. Very open to feedback!

Hi to all 

I am trying to make a basic calendar program, in order to show my future calendar events.
I would like to READ my Google Calendar and show events on screen (only read, it is not necessary to write new events), and I have no idea on how to make it.

Do you know if it is possible with QB64PE ?

Thank you very much!!!