Q21859: WIDTH 40, WIDTH 80; "Illegal Function Call"

Article: Q21859
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 1.00 1.01 1.02 2.00 2.01 3.00 4.00 4.00b 4.50
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 21-DEC-1988

Question:

Why do I get an "Illegal Function Call" using a WIDTH statement with a
width other than 40 or 80?

Response:

The WIDTH statement operates the same way in QuickBASIC as it does in
the GW-BASIC Version 3.20 and IBM BASICA interpreters.

To change the allowed width of screen output, you need to open the
"SCRN:" device and output as follows:

  width "scrn:",11    ' Sets screen width to 11 characters.
  open "scrn:" for output as #1
  print#1, "123456789012345678901234567890"
  close

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