Day 12: Key Input | Learn TI 83 Plus Assembly in 28 Days

If you want to have any kind of interactivity with your programs, you’ll have to know how to get input from the user by detecting keypresses.

There are three methods of getting a keypress. The two that this lesson covers involve simple ROM calls. The third is more complex, and is really only useful for games, so it’ll be taken care of later.

Getting Input With GetKey

_GetKey

Pauses the program until a key is pressed.

A: Key code of key pressed, or 0 if the ON key was pressed.

BC DE HL

While GetKey is waiting for a key, you can do all sorts of things…

Change the contrast (like you normally would).
Get screen shots with the Graph Link.
Turn the calculator off by hitting 2ndON. In this case, the program will terminate.

The third feature is bad: It will cause a memory leak. This means that the RAM the program takes up won’t be reclaimed until you reset. To avoid this so you can exit the program manually:

This is an undocumented ROM call. You must put _GetKeyRetOff .EQU $500B in your program.

_GetKeyRetOff: Exactly the same as GetKey, except that 2ndON combination will return kOff in A.

$500B

7, (IY + $28) is set. You will learn what this means later.

Something about GetKeyRetOff you should know: once you execute one GetKeyRetOff, all subsequent _GetKeys will behave similarly. This includes the _GetKey that the TI-OS is running at the homescreen, so you won’t be able to turn off the calculator immediately after quitting the program. You need to press 2ndQuit or go into certain menus to turn this effect off.

Program 12-1

This program couldn’t be simpler. It waits for a key, then outputs the keycode.

    b_call(_ClrLCDFull)
    LD     HL, 0
    LD     (CurRow), HL
    b_call(_GetKey)    ; Get a key
    LD     H, 0
    LD     L, A         ; Store A in HL
    b_call(_DispHL)
    b_call(_NewLine)   ; This will shift the "Done" message down one line.
    RET

Run Indicator

Run this program a few times, hit a few keys, yada-yada-yada. But look at the top-right part of the screen when GetKey is running. You should see the Run Indicator, the little line scrolling up continuously. Isn’t that just slightly annoying? Of course it is. So let’s inspire some envy in all those BASIC programmers, and get rid of it.

_RunIndicOff: Deactivates the Run Indicator.

And, if you want, its opposite.

_RunIndicOn: Activates the Run Indicator.

Suppose you only want to accept certain keys. Well, in that case, you’d call GetKey, follow it with your CPs and jump if a valid key was pressed, or loop back to the GetKey otherwise.

Program 12-2

This program will demonstrate using GetKey in a loop. You use the up and down arrow keys to change the number, and press CLEAR to terminate.

    b_call(_RunIndicOff)       ; Kill the run indicator.
    b_call(_ClrLCDFull)
    LD     B, 127
    JR     Display    ; Display initial value of B.
KeyLoop:
    PUSH   BC         ; This will prevent B from being destroyed by _GetKey.
    b_call(_GetKey)
    POP    BC
    CP     kUp        ; If the up arrow key was pressed.
    JR     Z, Increase
    CP     kDown      ; If the down arrow key was pressed.
    JR     Z, Decrease
    CP     kClear     ; If the CLEAR key was pressed.
    RET    Z
    JR     KeyLoop    ; If any other key was pressed, redo _GetKey.
Increase:
    LD     A, B
    CP     255        ; Don't increment B if it's at its maximum value.
    JR     Z, KeyLoop
    INC    B
    JR     Display    ; Display new value of B.
Decrease:
    LD     A, B
    CP     0          ; Don't decrement B if it's at its minimum value.
    JR     Z, KeyLoop
    DEC    B
Display:
    LD     HL, 0       ; Reset cursor to top of screen.
    LD     (CurRow), HL
    LD     L, B
    PUSH   BC         ; Prevent B from destruction at the hands of _DispHL.
    b_call(_DispHL)
    POP    BC
    JR     KeyLoop    ; Get another key.

Getting Input With GetCSC

_GetCSC

Gets a key. Unlike GetKey, does not wait.

A: Scan code of key pressed, or 0 if no key was pressed.

HL

GetCSC does not support any of the special features GetKey does. It also doesn’t support 2nd or Alpha shift keys. It is a little faster than GetKey, and it also doesn’t destroy as many registers.

Program 12-3

Okay, Program 12-3 will do the exact same thing as Program 12-2, except now GetCSC will be used.

    b_call(_RunIndicOff)
    b_call(_ClrLCDFull)
    LD     B, 127
    JR     Display    ; Display initial value of B.
KeyLoop:
    b_call(_GetCSC)
    CP     skUp       ; If the up arrow key was pressed.
    JR     Z, Increase
    CP     skDown     ; If the down arrow key was pressed.
    JR     Z, Decrease
    CP     skClear    ; If the CLEAR key was pressed.
    RET    Z
    JR     KeyLoop    ; If any other key was pressed, or none, redo _GetCSC.
Increase:
    LD     A, B
    CP     255        ; Don't increment B if it's at its maximum value.
    JR     Z, KeyLoop
    INC    B
    JR     Display    ; Display new value of B.
Decrease:
    LD     A, B
    CP     0          ; Don't decrement B if it's at its minimum value.
    JR     Z, KeyLoop
    DEC    B
    JR     Display    ; Display new value of B.
Display:
    LD     HL, 0       ; Reset cursor to top of screen.
    LD     (CurRow), HL
    LD     L, B
    PUSH   BC         ; Prevent B from destruction at the hands of _DispHL.
    b_call(_DispHL)
    POP    BC
    JR     KeyLoop    ; Get another key.