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Here is a completely remastered PDF of the BBC Microcomputer System User Guide.

Two editions are included: the original guide from 1982 for the BBC Model A and B, and the updated version from 1984 that also covers the B+.

The look and layout of the original guides is preserved.
All errata corrections have been applied to the text.
Corrected all OCR errors, incorrect page number references and any factual errors found.
All diagrams redrawn in vectors.
Extensive use of hyperlinks - click on any 'see page', 'see chapter' or BASIC keyword text to jump straight to the relevant page.

BBC_User_Guide.pdf Fifth revision (April 2023) (1.52 MiB) Downloaded 2245 times BBC_User_Guide.ssd (30 KiB) Downloaded 1155 times BBC_B+_User_Guide.pdf Fourth revision (April 2023) (2.12 MiB) Downloaded 865 times BBC_B+_User_Guide.ssd (29 KiB) Downloaded 903 times

Other remastered user guides in this series:

Last edited by dv8 on Sat Apr 15, 2023 11:25 am, edited 8 times in total. DutchAcorn Posts: 2677 Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:56 am Location: Maarn, Netherlands Contact:

Re: Remastered BBC B and B+ User Guides

Post by DutchAcorn » Thu Nov 09, 2017 1:57 pm

Very impressive work! (again!) danielj Posts: 9994 Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:51 pm Location: Manchester Contact:

Re: Remastered BBC B and B+ User Guides

Post by danielj » Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:12 pm

lurkio Posts: 4351 Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:30 am Location: Doomawangara Contact:

Re: Remastered BBC B and B+ User Guides

Post by lurkio » Thu Nov 09, 2017 2:19 pm

leenew Posts: 4908 Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:27 pm Location: Doncaster, Yorkshire Contact:

Re: Remastered BBC B and B+ User Guides

Post by leenew » Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:17 pm

jgharston Posts: 5505 Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 12:22 pm Location: Whitby/Sheffield Contact:

Re: Remastered BBC B and B+ User Guides

Post by jgharston » Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:50 pm

Wonderful work. I've spotted a couple of typos (eg OSBYTE 2, X=3 should be X=2). I'll go through it in more detail when I get around to i.

$ bbcbasic PDP11 BBC BASIC IV Version 0.45 (C) Copyright J.G.Harston 1989,2005-2024 >_

jgharston Posts: 5505 Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 12:22 pm Location: Whitby/Sheffield Contact:

Re: Remastered BBC B and B+ User Guides

Post by jgharston » Thu Nov 09, 2017 4:10 pm

I notice the manual perpetuates the error with file access bits, which has propagated into a lot of other documentation, and even caused several people to write their own software incorrectly. So I'll post this here so it is in public.

The file access byte at XY+14 after calling OSFILE indicates whether the object *HAS* those access settings, ***NOT*** if those access settings are absent. That is:
b0: 'R' access present - user can read the file
b1: 'W' access present - user can write to the file
b2: 'E' access present - user can execute the file if 'R' absent
b3: 'L' access present - user cannot delete, overwrite or rename the file
b4: 'r' access present - public can read the file
b5: 'w' access present - public can write to the file
b6: 'e' access present - public can execute the file if 'e' absent
b7: implementation specific. Public can never delete or rename a file they do not own, so public L is always implicitly set.

The access byte setting for the standard "WR/wr" access setting is &33, ***NOT*** &00.

DFS implements a subset of this in that only b3 is ever returned.

$ bbcbasic PDP11 BBC BASIC IV Version 0.45 (C) Copyright J.G.Harston 1989,2005-2024 >_