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CBM PET UPPERCASE WRITING
- Thread starter Desperado
- Start date
daver2
10k Member
That is not a stupid question. I had the same question many years ago...
The initial PET machine displayed in uppercase with graphics characters on the SHIFT - but no lowercase characters.
For business use, the default would be lowercase (for things like word processing etc.) so Commodore had to come up with something else as a more professional computer.
What they came up with was lowercase characters in place of uppercase (so this became the default). The uppercase characters then replaced some of the graphics characters.
You could then change the character set to uppercase and graphics by the use of a print chr$ or a POKE to play games. This is what the GRAPHIC signal does feeding the character generator ROM on (say) an 8032.
That is my 10 cents at this time in the morning...
If you look in my PETTESTER documentation, you will see the 'default' (none graphic) character set for the different PETs displayed in PETSCII order (the initial VDU test screen).
Dave
The initial PET machine displayed in uppercase with graphics characters on the SHIFT - but no lowercase characters.
For business use, the default would be lowercase (for things like word processing etc.) so Commodore had to come up with something else as a more professional computer.
What they came up with was lowercase characters in place of uppercase (so this became the default). The uppercase characters then replaced some of the graphics characters.
You could then change the character set to uppercase and graphics by the use of a print chr$ or a POKE to play games. This is what the GRAPHIC signal does feeding the character generator ROM on (say) an 8032.
That is my 10 cents at this time in the morning...
If you look in my PETTESTER documentation, you will see the 'default' (none graphic) character set for the different PETs displayed in PETSCII order (the initial VDU test screen).
Dave
My 5 cents …
PETs with the business keyboard (ones without graphics symbols and fewer number of keys on the numeric pad) default to lower case - these were directed towards word processing and spreadsheet work etc… usually the 8032 and later models. This was to reflect, I assume, their focus on business computing.
There was a 2001-32b (9inch version) that also had a business keyboard which also had lower case as default.
The graphics keyboard defaulted to uppercase and as Dave said, when you press the shift key and another key you get the graphics symbols defined in the character rom. The graphics keyboard was their first “style” and direction towards home and business’s rather than pure business
Essentially it’s down to the keyboard in the machine which essentially determines what it is configured to default too…
Andy
PETs with the business keyboard (ones without graphics symbols and fewer number of keys on the numeric pad) default to lower case - these were directed towards word processing and spreadsheet work etc… usually the 8032 and later models. This was to reflect, I assume, their focus on business computing.
There was a 2001-32b (9inch version) that also had a business keyboard which also had lower case as default.
The graphics keyboard defaulted to uppercase and as Dave said, when you press the shift key and another key you get the graphics symbols defined in the character rom. The graphics keyboard was their first “style” and direction towards home and business’s rather than pure business
Essentially it’s down to the keyboard in the machine which essentially determines what it is configured to default too…
Andy
Hugo Holden
Veteran Member
daver2
10k Member
You might also want to consider adding the PRINT CHR$(14) for text mode and PRINT CHR$(142) for graphics mode to your label.
These two PRINT statements (for a later CRTC PET only) adjust the spacing for text mode (to make it look prettier by increasing the line spacing between character rows) or for graphics mode (reducing the line spacing between character rows) to make the space invaders and shelter structures look prettier.
Dave
These two PRINT statements (for a later CRTC PET only) adjust the spacing for text mode (to make it look prettier by increasing the line spacing between character rows) or for graphics mode (reducing the line spacing between character rows) to make the space invaders and shelter structures look prettier.
Dave
PETs with CRTC chips can also access both the standard character rom set (2k) and an alternative set contained in the other 2k bank of a 4K rom chip. Again through a poke command … how the superpet accesses the APL character set.
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