For your particular example QBasic was actually a nice way of writing it: LINE (a,b)-(c,d), colour On the other hand, they went nuts with it and had ways

For your particular example QBasic was actually a nice way of writing it: LINE (a,b)-(c,d), colour On the other hand, they went nuts with it and had ways of making rectangles with the same syntax, too: LINE (a,b)-(c,d), colour, B ' Rectangle LINE (a,b)-(c,d), colour, BF ' Filled rectangle