This page (revision-36) was last changed on 03-Feb-2023 15:21 by Roland B. Wassenberg 

This page was created on 23-Dec-2010 08:24 by Carsten Strotmann

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Page revision history

Version Date Modified Size Author Changes ... Change note
36 03-Feb-2023 15:21 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous
35 29-Jul-2020 21:57 8 KB Peter Dell to previous | to last TURBO-BASIC XL ==> Turbo-BASIC XL
34 18-Apr-2020 19:55 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
33 18-Apr-2020 19:40 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last TURBO-BASIC XX ==> TURBO-BASIC XL
32 18-Apr-2020 19:39 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last TURBO-BASIC XL ==> TURBO-BASIC XX
31 31-Mar-2020 23:13 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
30 22-Mar-2020 23:05 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
29 21-Mar-2020 07:01 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
28 18-Mar-2020 04:55 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
27 18-Mar-2020 03:28 8 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
26 18-Mar-2020 03:22 7 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
25 18-Mar-2020 03:10 7 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
24 05-Mar-2020 22:01 6 KB Roland B. Wassenberg to previous | to last
23 15-May-2018 12:36 6 KB Maury Markowitz to previous | to last
22 07-May-2018 19:36 6 KB Maury Markowitz to previous | to last
21 07-May-2018 19:34 6 KB Maury Markowitz to previous | to last

Page References

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Basic XL
Basic XL

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Difference between version and

At line 1 changed one line
!!!Basic XL by OSS
!!!Basic XL
OSS
The original [Atari BASIC] was written at Shepardson Microsystems shortly before the 8-bit machines were released. A short time later, Shepardson dissolved, and the Atari programmers re-formed as Optimized Systems Software, taking the source code to the Atari products with them. In 1981 they released [Basic A+], based on the original Atari BASIC code but containing a number of bug fixes and a few expansions. This made it too large for the 8kB ROM cartridges of the era, and A+ shipped only in disk form.
Basic XL was a further, but much larger, expansion on the Basic A+ model. As it was also based on the original source code, Basic XL remains a strict superset of Atari BASIC and would run any Atari BASIC program without modification. In contrast to A+, however, XL added many new commands to work with player/missile graphics, simplified handling of joysticks and light pens, autogenerated line numbers and handled renumbering, and other extensions.
Much more notable, however, was Basic XL's FAST command. Atari BASIC was notoriously slow, due larger to two problems. One was that the floating point routines in the Atari OS ROMs were very slow, and every number in BASIC, even line numbers and array indexes, were sent through this code. The other issue stemmed from the way Atari BASIC handled GOTO and FOR/NEXT commands. FAST fixed the later of these two; when this command was encountered within a program, Basic XL cached the location being pointed to by the GOTO and FOR/NEXT loops. This made the jumps dramatically faster than Atari BASIC, which had to scan through the entire source code every time through a loop.
Another notable feature of Basic XL was the AUTORUN system. This was a small runtime library that could be added to Basic XL programs to make them stand-alone. This allowed these programs to be run on computers that did not have Basic XL, which made it far more practical than A+. On top of this, Basic XL was shipped in the form of a 16kB "supercartridge" that used bank switching so it only took up 8kB of memory, making its footprint the same as Atari BASIC, as opposed to A+'s much larger size.
Basic XL was widely lauded in the press, and some stated it should be renamed Atari BASIC and built-into every machine. However, the release of [TURBO-BASIC XL] a year later largely ended the market for Basic XL.
This page (revision-36) was last changed on 03-Feb-2023 15:21 by Roland B. Wassenberg  Top