Yes, in BASIC you could enter keywords abbreviated with a . to save typing. The tokeniser would turn it into the byte or two representing PRINT ready for it to

Yes, in BASIC you could enter keywords abbreviated with a . to save typing. The tokeniser would turn it into the byte or two representing PRINT ready for it to be interpreted. I think you're thinking of the four volume RISC OS Programmers' Manual, plus slim index, that came in a big white cardboard sleeve. Augmented later by a Volume 5 of changes with later OS versions to save re-printing costs. BASIC itself was introduced in the User Guide that came with the machine IIRC and had a one-volume reference manual of its own at additional cost.