Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( Introduction)

I am not proud to present a new series of posts. 

My  Introduction of the Wordstore+ Picture Demo's series was longer than I expected, 

due to some technical details about the files on the disk I wrote about. 

It seemed to me like long boring stories and remove the too technical issues. 

Then I got the idea to share some of  my MSX Basic tips and tricks, I used the software 

I wrote for the Wordstore+ Picture Demos. Now I am not planning to create a complete course of MSX Basic programming, there is enough for you to find at msx.org. 

I just take simple tricks I use often, explain it with an example. Nothing fancy. I learned MSX Basic with the manual on disk Wegwijs op uw MSX ( it had also some games, 

see my 112 posts about Hexapion) and the MSX Handbook of Albert Sickler (???), 

which was not really a study book, more a reference book with good examples. I used the book so much, lots of pages got lose and I throw it away. 
Nowadays I use RuMSX as my MSX handbook when I want to know how to use an MSX Basic command. I will create a post for RuMSX later.

Well, back to the subject now.

The tricks and tips I want to post about will work on any MSX unless I mention it. 

However, I don't own a TURBO-R or an MSX-2+ ( I sold my Sanyo to an MSXer called Peter Schellekens so he could play MSX-2+ games - we used to go together to any MSX Fair, he rarely bought something,  I bought way too many ;-), so most tips will be MSX -1/2. 

I don't have much experience in MSX Basic programming,  I mostly modify existing software and write simple stuff like all kinds of menus. Stil, I believe my tips and tricks can be helpful, but remember there are multiple solutions for the same problem. So my solutions are just one of the many possibilities. 

First I will post about the tips and tricks I used in the 112 series, Wordstore+ Picture demos and the Fourseasons MSX disk. When I am out of ideas I have some old note books written by me, where I wrote all kinds of useful info ( like cheats for games and high scores) . 

There are some very clever tricks written down in it.
 

Have a look at the posts and leave a comment with your version of the solution to my problem.

Each post will have the same layout:

- Problem
- Solution
- Example

 So from now follow this series to get a couple of tricks to use in your MSX Basic programs.