PETSCII control characters¶

Snippets for all Commodore 64 PETSCII control characters in two forms:

Token form: {wht}, {clr}, {down} - BPP+ syntax for string embedding
chr$ form: chr$(5), chr$(147), chr$(17) - Standard BASIC v2 function calls

Available snippets¶

Colors¶

All 16 C64 color codes available as snippets:

{wht}, {red}, {grn}, {blu}, {blk}, {cyn}, {pur}, {yel}, {orng}, {brn}, {lred}, {gry1}, {gry2}, {lgrn}, {lblu}, {gry3}

print "{wht}White text"
print chr$(5);"Also white"

Color code reference¶

Token	chr$ Code	Decimal	Color
`{blk}`	chr$(144)	144	Black
`{wht}`	chr$(5)	5	White
`{red}`	chr$(28)	28	Red
`{cyn}`	chr$(159)	159	Cyan
`{pur}`	chr$(156)	156	Purple
`{grn}`	chr$(30)	30	Green
`{blu}`	chr$(31)	31	Blue
`{yel}`	chr$(158)	158	Yellow
`{orng}`	chr$(129)	129	Orange
`{brn}`	chr$(149)	149	Brown
`{lred}`	chr$(150)	150	Light Red
`{gry1}`	chr$(151)	151	Dark Gray
`{gry2}`	chr$(152)	152	Medium Gray
`{lgrn}`	chr$(153)	153	Light Green
`{lblu}`	chr$(154)	154	Light Blue
`{gry3}`	chr$(155)	155	Light Gray

Colors affect subsequent printed text until another color code is encountered.

Cursor movement¶

{up}, {down}, {left}, {rght}, {home}, {clr}

print "{home}{down}{down}Text"
print "{5 down}"          rem Repetition syntax

Text modes¶

{rvon}, {rvof}, {swuc}, {swlc}

print "{rvon}Reversed{rvof}"

Editing¶

{del}, {inst}

Function keys¶

{f1}, {f2}, {f3}, {f4}, {f5}, {f6}, {f7}, {f8}

Special characters¶

{return}, {space}, {pi}, {esc}, {stop}, {dish}, {ensh}, {sret}

Control key combinations¶

{CTRL-A} through {CTRL-Z} (excluding standard mappings above)

Token syntax features¶

Advanced token patterns within strings. These are BPP+ preprocessor extensions that compile to equivalent chr$ codes or character sequences.

Basic tokens¶

Single control characters enclosed in braces:

"{clr}"     rem Clear screen
"{wht}"     rem White color
"{down}"    rem Cursor down

Repetition syntax¶

Repeat a token multiple times using numeric prefix:

"{10 space}"    rem 10 spaces
"{5 down}"      rem Move cursor down 5 times
"{3 rght}"      rem Move cursor right 3 times

Compiles to repeated characters.

Range syntax¶

Generate character sequences using dash notation:

"{a-z}"     rem Lowercase alphabet (26 characters)
"{0-9}"     rem Digits 0 through 9 (10 characters)
"{A-Z}"     rem Uppercase alphabet (26 characters)

Useful for initialization, testing, or character set display.

Combining patterns¶

Multiple tokens can be combined in a single string:

print "{clr}{5 down}{10 space}{wht}Title"

The preprocessor processes tokens left-to-right, converting each to its compiled form.

Token constraints¶

Tokens must use exact names (case-insensitive)
Repetition count must be positive integer (1-255)
Range endpoints must be valid characters
Ranges generate characters in PETSCII order
Token delimiters { and } must be balanced