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Elite on the BBC Micro and NES

Keyboard: TRTB%

[BBC Master version]

Name: TRTB% [Show more] Type: Variable Category: Keyboard Summary: Translation table from internal key number to ASCII
Context: See this variable in context in the source code Variations: See code variations for this variable in the different versions References: This variable is used as follows: * RDKEY uses TRTB%

This is a copy of the keyboard translation table from the BBC Master's MOS 3.20 ROM. The value at offset n is the upper-case ASCII value of the key with internal key number n, so for example the value at offset &10 is &51, which is 81, or ASCII "Q", so internal key number &10 is the key number of the "Q" key. Valid internal key numbers are Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) numbers in the range &10 top &79, so they're in the ranges &10 to &19, then &20 to &29, then &30 to &39, and so on. This means that the other locations - i.e. &1A to &1F, &2A to &2F and so on - aren't used by the lookup table, but the MOS doesn't let this space go to waste; instead, those gaps contain MOS code, which is replicated below as the table contains a copy of this entire block of the MOS, not just the table entries. This table allows code running on the parasite to convert internal key numbers into ASCII codes in an efficient way. Without this table we would have to do a lookup from the table in the I/O processor's MOS ROM, which we would have to access from across the Tube, and this would be a lot slower than doing a simple table lookup in the parasite's user RAM.
.TRTB% EQUB &00, &40, &FE \ MOS code EQUB &A0, &5F, &8C EQUB &43, &FE, &8E EQUB &4F, &FE, &EA EQUB &AE, &4F, &FE EQUB &60 \ Internal key numbers &10 to &19: \ EQUB &51, &33 \ Q 3 EQUB &34, &35 \ 4 5 EQUB &84, &38 \ f4 8 EQUB &87, &2D \ f7 - EQUB &5E, &8C \ ^ Left arrow EQUB &36, &37, &BC \ MOS code EQUB &00, &FC, &60 \ Internal key numbers &20 to &29: \ EQUB &80, &57 \ f0 W EQUB &45, &54 \ E T EQUB &37, &49 \ 7 I EQUB &39, &30 \ 9 0 EQUB &5F, &8E \ _ Down arrow EQUB &38, &39, &BC \ MOS code EQUB &00, &FD, &60 \ Internal key numbers &30 to &39: \ EQUB &31, &32 \ 1 2 EQUB &44, &52 \ D R EQUB &36, &55 \ 6 U EQUB &4F, &50 \ O P EQUB &5B, &8F \ [ Up arrow EQUB &81, &82, &0D \ MOS code EQUB &4C, &20, &02 \ Internal key numbers &40 to &49: \ EQUB &01, &41 \ CAPS LOCK A EQUB &58, &46 \ X F EQUB &59, &4A \ Y J EQUB &4B, &40 \ K @ EQUB &3A, &0D \ : RETURN EQUB &83, &7F, &AE \ MOS code EQUB &4C, &FE, &FD \ Internal key numbers &50 to &59: \ EQUB &02, &53 \ SHIFT LOCK S EQUB &43, &47 \ C G EQUB &48, &4E \ H N EQUB &4C, &3B \ L ; EQUB &5D, &7F \ ] DELETE EQUB &85, &84, &86 \ MOS code EQUB &4C, &FA, &00 \ Internal key numbers &60 to &69: \ EQUB &00, &5A \ TAB Z EQUB &20, &56 \ Space V EQUB &42, &4D \ B M EQUB &2C, &2E \ , . EQUB &2F, &8B \ / COPY EQUB &30, &31, &33 \ MOS code EQUB &00, &00, &00 \ Internal key numbers &70 to &79: \ EQUB &1B, &81 \ ESCAPE f1 EQUB &82, &83 \ f2 f3 EQUB &85, &86 \ f5 f6 EQUB &88, &89 \ f8 f9 EQUB &5C, &8D \ \ Right arrow EQUB &34, &35, &32 \ MOS code EQUB &2C, &4E, &E3