Home
CBM
  ASCII-X
  BASIC
    Disk Commands
    Enter RUN mode
    Program Format
    Secret Variables
    Variable Format
    Expressions
    Keywords
      (divide)
      (equal)
      (less)
      (minus)
      (more)
      (multiply)
      (plus)
      (power)
      Abs
      And
      Append
      Asc
      Atn
      Auto
      Backup
      Bank
      Begin
      Bend
      Bload
      Boot
      Box
      Bsave
      Bump
      Catalog
      Char
      Chr
      Circle
      Close
      Clr
      Cmd
      Collect
      Collision
      Color
      Concat
      Cont
      Copy
      Cos
      Data
      Dclear
      Dclose
      Dec
      Def
      Delete
      Dim
      Directory
      Dispose
      Dload
      Do
      Dopen
      Draw
      Ds
      Ds string
      Dsave
      Dverify
      El
      Else
      End
      Envelope
      Er
      Err
      Exit
      Exp
      Fast
      Fetch
      Filter
      Fn
      For
      Fre
      Get
      Get num
      Getkey
      Go
      Gosub
      Goto
      Graphic
      Gshape
      Header
      Help
      Hex
      If
      Input
      Input num
      Instr
      Int
      Joy
      Key
      Left
      Len
      Let
      List
      Load
      Locate
      Log
      Loop
      Mid
      Monitor
      Movspr
      New
      Next
      Not
      Off
      On
      Open
      Or
      Paint
      Peek
      Pen
      Pi
      Play
      Pointer
      Poke
      Pos
      Pot
      Print
      Print num
      Pudef
      Quit
      Rclr
      Rdot
      Read
      Record
      Rem
      Rename
      Renumber
      Restore
      Resume
      Return
      Rgr
      Right
      Rlum
      Rnd
      Rreg
      Rspcolor
      Rsppos
      Rsprite
      Run
      Rwindow
      Save
      Scale
      Scnclr
      Scratch
      Sgn
      Sin
      Sleep
      Slow
      Sound
      Spc
      Sprcolor
      Sprdef
      Sprite
      Sprsav
      Sqr
      Sshape
      St
      Stash
      Step
      Stop
      Str
      Swap
      Sys
      Tab
      Tan
      Tempo
      Then
      Ti
      Ti string
      To
      Trap
      Troff
      Tron
      Until
      Using
      Usr
      Val
      Verify
      Vol
      Wait
      While
      Width
      Window
      Xor
    Syntax
    Tokens
  C128
  D64plus
  Disk
  Escape Codes
  Hardware
  PCxface
  PETSCII
  Pet2asc
Futurama
IBM PC-AT
Contact
Games
Glossary
Hall of fame
Hall of shame
Miscellaneous
Privacy policy
Programming
Twisty puzzles
Keyword
AbbreviationToken (hex)Version(s)Classification
CIRCLEC{Shift+I}E23.5, 7.0Command and Statement
TRAPT{Shift+R}E24.7Statement

Syntax 
CIRCLE [  colorSource ] [ , { [ + | - ] xVal [ , [ + | - ] yVal ] distance ; angle } [ , [ xRadius ] [ , [ yRadius ] [ , [ startArc ] [ , [ endArc ] [ , [ rotation ] [ , stepAngle ] ] ] ] ] ]
 
ParametersTypeLegal Value(s)Default ValueNote(s)
colorSourceInteger
0 or 1 (high-res)
0 to 3 (multi-color)
1
The actual color on-screen depends
on the colorSource assignment by COLOR
xValInteger* -32768 to +32767 pixel cursor X rectangular X ordinate or offset for center
yVal Integer* -32768 to +32767 pixel cursor Yrectangular Y ordinate or offset for center 
distanceInteger* -32768 to +32767 polar distance for center 
angleUnsigned Integer 0 to 65535 undefinedpolar angle for center
xRadius Unsigned Integer 0 to 65535 1/2 width of circle 
yRadiusUnsigned Integer 0 to 65535 xRadius[*2] 1/2 height of circle; default times 2 for multi-color mode
startArcUnsigned Integer 0 to 65535 in clockwise degrees; should not be more than endAngle
endArc Unsigned Integer 0 to 65535 360 in clockwise degrees
rotation Unsigned Integer 0 to 65535 ellipse rotation in clockwise degrees 
stepAngleUnsigned Byte1 to 255 in degrees 
*Due to a bug in the original C128 ROMs (start-up message says (c)1985), only positive/unsigned values of 0 to 65535 may be used.
 
 
Purpose 
Plot a (partial) ellipse or regular polygon on the bitmap screen.

 
 
Remarks 
All parameters are optional.  Without any, CIRCLE will (slowly) plot a single pixel (actually the same pixel 180 times).
 
The coordinate (after the optional colorSource) defines the center of the "circle"; if not specified, it defaults to the "pixel cursor" (the last point calculated in the previous bitmap command).  A specified coordinate will be effected by SCALE if it is active.  The resulting values may be off-screen, as long as they are legal as shown above.
 
The optional xRadius and yRadius define the size of the "circle".  The width of a complete (and non-rotated) "circle" is defined by two times xRadius (default 0).  The height of a complete (and non-rotated) "circle" is defined by two times yRadius.  The default yRadius depends on the GRAPHIC mode.  For high-resolution, it is the same as xRadius; for multi-color, it is twice the xRadius.  Because the pixels are not square (in either mode), the result will be an ellipse instead of a true circle (assuming all the following parameters use default values).
 
A complete "circle" need not be drawn.  A "partial circle" or arc may be drawn instead.  To do this, specify a startArc and endArc with a difference less than 360 (the length of the arc in degrees).  The endArc should be greater than startArc or you will get strange results!  Either (or both) may be more than 360 degrees, in this case the result is the same as if both values were modified by subtracting startArc - Mod(startArc, 360) from both values.  If that doesn't make sense, then just keep startArc in the range 0 to 359 and endArc in the range 0 to 719 such that endArc >= startArc (and usually endArc-startArc <= 360).  And if that doesn't make sense, you'll just have to play around with it!
 
The rotation will rotate the "circle" by the specified number of degrees.  If you can manage to draw a true circle, this will have no effect (assuming default stepAngle).  In the typical case (an ellipse, not a true circle), the angle is only relevent modulo 180 due to symmetry.  For example a rotation of 45 is effectively the same as a rotation of 225 or 405 (45 + 180*1 or 45 + 180*2).
 
The stepAngle can be used to generate regular polygons instead of an ellipse/circle.  You see, by default, this command really draws a 180-sided polygon!  The number of sides in the polygon equals 360 divided by the stepAngle (so with the default value of 2, you get 360/2 = 180 sides).  Here are values for polygons you may want to try:
  • 120 degrees for a triangle [trigon?] (3 sides)
  • 90 degrees for a parallelogram [tetragon?] (4 sides)
  • 72 degrees for a pentagon (5 sides)
  • 60 degrees for a hexagon (6 sides)
  • 51 degrees for a septagon (7 sides)
  • 45 degrees for an octogon (8 sides)
  • 40 degrees for a nonagon (9 sides)
  • 36 degrees for a decagon (10 sides)
  • 30 degrees for a dodecagon (12 sides)
As you exceed 12 sides, the result looks more and more like a circle (as the stepAngle gets smaller).  If you are not drawing a very large (near full-screen) size circle, using a stepAngle of 10 should give acceptable results (a 36-sided polygon) but render noticebly faster than the default value.
 
The width plotted on screen of each "dot" of all line-segments is controlled by a secret BASIC variable.  That secret variable can be set with WIDTH.  If it is 1, each dot will be 1 pixel wide; if it is 2, each dot will be 2 pixels wide.
 
Strangely in all versions, negative angles are not allowed!  Try adding 360 (or 720) to fix this problem (this works for positive angles too), but see the notes about startArc and endArc.
 
Any floating-point numbers will first be converted to integers (see INT).  If any value is out-of-range (see above) an ILLEGAL QUANTITY ERROR is generated.  If no bitmap has been setup (see GRAPHIC), a NO GRAPHICS AREA is generated.
 
Example of optional colorSource and optional center:
DRAW 1,60,60: CIRCLE , ,, 50 : REM CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 50,50[*2]
 
Example of relative rectangular and polar coordinate:
DRAW 1,60,60: CIRCLE , +10,-10, 40 : REM CIRCLE 1, 70,50, 40,40[*2]

READY.
DRAW 1,60,60: CIRCLE , 20; 30, 40 : REM ~CIRCLE 1, 70,43, 40,40[*2]
 
Example of very wide and very tall ellipse:
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 100,20 : REM very wide

READY.
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 20,100 : REM very tall
 
Example of an arc (semi-circle), the "bottom half" of an ellipse:
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 40,, 90,270 :REM radius 40,40[*2] and arc 90~270 degrees
 
Example of a rotated ellipse:
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 40,120, ,, 30 :REM radius 40,120 arc 0~360 degrees, rotate 30 degrees
 
Example of polygons:
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 40,, ,, , 120 :REM triangle with "radius" of 40,40[*2]

READY.
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 40,, ,, 45, 90 :REM rectangle with "radius" of 40,40 [wrong in multi-color]

READY.
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 40,, ,, , 90 :REM diamond with "radius" of 40,40[*2]

READY.
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 40,, ,, , 72 :REM pentagon with "radius" of 40,40[*2]

READY.
CIRCLE 1, 60,60, 40,, ,, , 60 :REM hexagon with "radius" of 40,40[*2]

READY.
 
Compare With 
 
See Also 

© H2Obsession, 2014