Accessing current cursor position? How?

[K4TFJ]

In BASIC... my goal is to create a status line at bottom of my screen  to update occasionally and I will need to store the current cursor location temporarily while i update the line. Then return to stored cursor location and continue.

I need to locate the current cursor position: HOW???

I am currently using this for positioning:  POKE $30D, ROW: POKE $30E, COL: SYS $FFF0

I don't know if that is the best, but without a LOCATE command... its all I know at the moment.

Enlighten me please!

[SlithyMatt]

I don't know about BASIC, but in Assembly you can call the PLOT kernal routine ($fff0) with the carry bit set:

sec

jsr $fff0

Then, the X and Y registers will contain the coordinates.

[JimmyDansbo]

I do not think that BASIC has a function to return the current cursor location, but as SlithyMatt mentions, the KERNAL has an API call that can be used.

Here is a BASIC program that shows how to use the PLOT API call.

Quote

10 A=780:           REM A-REGISTER

20 X=781:           REM X-REGISTER

30 Y=782:           REM Y-REGISTER

40 F=783:           REM FLAGS-REGISTER

50 I=PEEK(F):    REM READ FLAGS

60 I=I AND $FE: REM CLEAR CARRY FLAG TO SET CURSOR POSITION

70 POKE F,I

80 POKE X, 20:  REM MOVE CURSOR TO LINE 20 (X-REGISTER = Y COORDINATE)

90 POKE Y,45:    REM MOVE CURSOR TO COLUMN 45 (Y-REGISTER = X COORDINATE)

100 SYS $FFF0: REM CALL THE PLOT KERNAL API

110 INPUT M$:  REM WAIT FOR USER TO ENTER SOMETHING IN ORDER TO SEE CURSOR HAS MOVED

For further information, you can check out the SYS statement: https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/SYS

The PLOT API call: https://cx16.dk/c64-kernal-routines/plot.html

Flag locations in the FLAGS register, see page 8 of the w65c02 datasheet: https://eater.net/datasheets/w65c02s.pdf