This page (revision-270) was last changed on 26-Mar-2023 02:03 by Administrator 

This page was created on 20-Feb-2010 19:16 by Carsten Strotmann

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Version Date Modified Size Author Changes ... Change note
270 26-Mar-2023 02:03 17 KB Administrator to previous
269 26-Mar-2023 02:02 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last
268 26-Mar-2023 02:01 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last
267 26-Mar-2023 02:00 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last ACTION Source Code ==> Action Source Code
266 26-Mar-2023 01:59 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last
265 26-Mar-2023 01:58 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last
264 26-Mar-2023 01:56 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last Remove links to delete manual pages
263 26-Mar-2023 01:22 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last Fix SF links
262 26-Mar-2023 01:21 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last
261 26-Mar-2023 01:18 17 KB Administrator to previous | to last Move manuals to Sourceforge

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Action! is an Atari-specific programming language written by Clinton Parker and sold by Optimized Systems Software (OSS) in ROM cartridge form starting in August 1983. It is the only language other than [BASIC|Basic] and [assembler] that had real popularity on the platform and saw any significant coverage in the Atari press; type-in programs and various technical articles were found in most magazines. In comparison, languages like [Forth] and [Logo] saw much less use and almost no press coverage.
Action (also Action!) is an Atari-specific programming language written by Clinton Parker and sold by Optimized Systems Software (OSS) in ROM cartridge form starting in August 1983. It is the only language other than [BASIC|Basic] and [assembler] that had real popularity on the platform and saw any significant coverage in the Atari press; type-in programs and various technical articles were found in most magazines. In comparison, languages like [Forth] and [Logo] saw much less use and almost no press coverage.
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Action! uses a greatly cut-down version of the ALGOL syntax, and thus bears strong similarities with [Pascal] and [C], which were also derived from ALGOL. Like those languages, Action! is procedural, with programs essentially consisting of a large collection of functions that call each other. It lacked encapsulation or data hiding, but that is not a serious concern in the limited program sizes available on an 8-bit machine. Syntactically it looks very similar to Pascal, with the exception that it uses ALGOL 68 DO/OD style bracketing rather than Pascal's BEGIN/END.
Action uses a greatly cut-down version of the ALGOL syntax, and thus bears strong similarities with [Pascal] and [C], which were also derived from ALGOL. Like those languages, Action is procedural, with programs essentially consisting of a large collection of functions that call each other. It lacked encapsulation or data hiding, but that is not a serious concern in the limited program sizes available on an 8-bit machine. Syntactically it looks very similar to Pascal, with the exception that it uses ALGOL 68 DO/OD style bracketing rather than Pascal's BEGIN/END.
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These design details helped increase performance, but the primary reason Action! was much faster than other languages of the era was due to its memory management model. In languages like C and Pascal, procedure calls use a stack of records known as "activation records" that record the values of variables when the procedure was called. This allows a procedure to call itself, as each call can have its own values, and it is this feature that allows recursion. This concept requires the manipulation of a stack, which in the 6502 was a non-trivial prospect given the CPU stack was only 256 bytes.
These design details helped increase performance, but the primary reason Action was much faster than other languages of the era was due to its memory management model. In languages like C and Pascal, procedure calls use a stack of records known as "activation records" that record the values of variables when the procedure was called. This allows a procedure to call itself, as each call can have its own values, and it is this feature that allows recursion. This concept requires the manipulation of a stack, which in the 6502 was a non-trivial prospect given the CPU stack was only 256 bytes.
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Action! solved this problem by simply not implementing activation records. Instead, the storage space for variables was allocated at compile time (not dissimilar to Atari BASIC's model). This meant Action! could not support recursion, but also eliminated the necessity to build and manipulate a complex stack. This dramatically lowers the overhead of procedure calls, and in a language that organizes a program as a series of procedure calls, this represents a significant amount of time.
Action solved this problem by simply not implementing activation records. Instead, the storage space for variables was allocated at compile time (not dissimilar to Atari BASIC's model). This meant Action could not support recursion, but also eliminated the necessity to build and manipulate a complex stack. This dramatically lowers the overhead of procedure calls, and in a language that organizes a program as a series of procedure calls, this represents a significant amount of time.
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Action! had a number of limitations, none of them very serious. Curiously, Action! did not include support for floating-point types, although such support is built into the machine's OS ROM (see [Atari BASIC] for details) and available to any programming language. This is a significant limitation in some roles, although perhaps not for its target market. It also lacked most string handling routines, but made up for this somewhat with a series of PRINT commands that made formatted output easy.
Action had a number of limitations, none of them very serious. Curiously, Action did not include support for floating-point types, although such support is built into the machine's OS ROM (see [Atari BASIC] for details) and available to any programming language. This is a significant limitation in some roles, although perhaps not for its target market. It also lacked most string handling routines, but made up for this somewhat with a series of PRINT commands that made formatted output easy.
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Generally, Action! programs had performance on-par with reasonable-quality [assembler], while being much easier to program. In one review, it ran Byte's Sieve of Eratosthenes 219 times faster than Atari BASIC, while its source was only a few lines longer. In comparison, the assembler version's source ran on for several pages. Such performance, combined with terse code and library functions to access much of the platform's hardware, made it suitable for action games while still having a simple source format suitable for type-in programs. It deserved to be much more popular, and may have been had it been released earlier, or by Atari itself.
Generally, Action programs had performance on-par with reasonable-quality [assembler], while being much easier to program. In one review, it ran Byte's Sieve of Eratosthenes 219 times faster than Atari BASIC, while its source was only a few lines longer. In comparison, the assembler version's source ran on for several pages. Such performance, combined with terse code and library functions to access much of the platform's hardware, made it suitable for action games while still having a simple source format suitable for type-in programs. It deserved to be much more popular, and may have been had it been released earlier, or by Atari itself.
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Action! inspired several similar languages that differ largely in syntax and various features that they do or do not support. Examples include [PL65] and [Quick].
Action inspired several similar languages that differ largely in syntax and various features that they do or do not support. Examples include [PL65] and [Quick].
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; Hello world in Action! programming language for the Atari 8-Bit computers
; Hello world in Action programming language for the Atari 8-Bit computers
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The {{;}} is a comment marker, which was a commonly used as the comment marker in assembler as well. The {{PROC}} is the start of a PROCedure, which ends (perhaps oddly) with {{RETURN}}. In Action!, the last {{PROC}} in the program is the one that runs first, in this case "Hello". This is something of a mix between Pascal where the "global code" defines the program entry point, and C, where the function called "Main" is the entry point. The only line of code in this example is {{PrintE}}, which simply prints a string, while the more common {{PrintF}} is a formatted print similar to {{printf}} in C.
The {{;}} is a comment marker, which was a commonly used as the comment marker in assembler as well. The {{PROC}} is the start of a PROCedure, which ends (perhaps oddly) with {{RETURN}}. In Action, the last {{PROC}} in the program is the one that runs first, in this case "Hello". This is something of a mix between Pascal where the "global code" defines the program entry point, and C, where the function called "Main" is the entry point. The only line of code in this example is {{PrintE}}, which simply prints a string, while the more common {{PrintF}} is a formatted print similar to {{printf}} in C.
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* [Action-Handbuch-komplett_2016_von_GBXL.pdf] ; Das komplette, vollständige, restaurierte und überarbeitete Action!-Handbuch in deutsch! Der totale Hammer, inkl. Editor, Monitor, Language, Compiler, Library, Run Time, Toolkit. Vollständig überarbeitete Version von 2016 von GoodByteXL. So müssen PDF-Dateien aussehen, es gibt weltweit nichts vergleichbares. AtariWiki empfiehlt die PDF-Datei auf das Wärmste! Wer diese nicht lädt, ist selber schuld. Wir bedanken uns an dieser Stelle sehr, sehr herzlich bei GoodByteXL für seine lange andauernde und intensive Arbeit an diesem Werk, dass er hiermit der Atari-Gemeinschaft zur Verfügung stellt. GoodByteXL mega-Danke für Deine Arbeit, die Gemeinschaft steht tief in Deiner Schuld. :-)))
* [Action_manual_3rd-revised_edition_2015_by_GBXL.pdf] ;The complete Action! manual! Editor, Monitor, Language, Compiler, Library, Run Time, Toolkit. 3rd revised edition 2015 by GoodByteXL. Highly recommended by the AtariWiki! This is, without any(!) doubt, the very best edition worldwide available. Nobody does it better. Mega-thanks to GoodByteXL for this outstanding work and the many hours of work to the community. We are deep in your debt! Thank you so much. :-)))
* [Action-Handbuch-komplett_2016_von_GBXL.pdf] ; Das komplette, vollständige, restaurierte und überarbeitete Action Handbuch in deutsch! Der totale Hammer, inkl. Editor, Monitor, Language, Compiler, Library, Run Time, Toolkit. Vollständig überarbeitete Version von 2016 von GoodByteXL. So müssen PDF-Dateien aussehen, es gibt weltweit nichts vergleichbares. AtariWiki empfiehlt die PDF-Datei auf das Wärmste! Wer diese nicht lädt, ist selber schuld. Wir bedanken uns an dieser Stelle sehr, sehr herzlich bei GoodByteXL für seine lange andauernde und intensive Arbeit an diesem Werk, dass er hiermit der Atari-Gemeinschaft zur Verfügung stellt. GoodByteXL mega-Danke für Deine Arbeit, die Gemeinschaft steht tief in Deiner Schuld. :-)))
* [Action_manual_3rd-revised_edition_2015_by_GBXL.pdf] ;The complete Action manual! Editor, Monitor, Language, Compiler, Library, Run Time, Toolkit. 3rd revised edition 2015 by GoodByteXL. Highly recommended by the AtariWiki! This is, without any(!) doubt, the very best edition worldwide available. Nobody does it better. Mega-thanks to GoodByteXL for this outstanding work and the many hours of work to the community. We are deep in your debt! Thank you so much. :-)))
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* [Action! Programming Language|https://sourceforge.net/projects/] provides the latest [sources|https://sourceforge.net/p/atari-action/code/ci/master/tree/] and [binaries||https://sourceforge.net/projects/files] for Action!
* [Action! Programming Language|https://sourceforge.net/projects/] provides the latest [sources|https://sourceforge.net/p/atari-action/code/ci/master/tree/] and [binaries||https://sourceforge.net/projects/files] for Action
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!Action! Language and Editor
!Action Language and Editor
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* [END Procedure] - Call prodedure to leave ACTION! Program
* [END Procedure] - Call procedure to leave an Action Program
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* [SourceCodeDisk1] ; SpartaDOS X disk image with ACTION! source code
* [SourceCodeDisk1] ; SpartaDOS X disk image with Action source code
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* [Relocator] for ACTION!, relocates ACTION! code to run independent from the code location
* [Relocator] for Action; relocates Action code to run independent from the code location
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ACTION! first ad in Compute July, 1983 ; please take into account: 128-column screen and for Apple II & Commodore 64. Thanks to GoodByteXL!
First Action ad in Compute July, 1983 ; please take into account: 128-column screen and for Apple II & Commodore 64. Thanks to GoodByteXL!
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|[Review Action!]|#16 (02/ 84)|en|review
|[An Introduction to ACTION!] |#17 + #18 (03+ 04/ 84)|en|tutorial
|[Stars in 3D]|#20 (07/ 84)|en|demo
|[Bounce in ACTION!]|#20 (07/ 84)|en|game
|[Pulse in ACTION!]|#26 (01/ 85)|en|demo
|[More Fun with Bounce!]|#27 (02/ 85)|en|game
|[Demon Birds]|#28 (03/ 85)|en|game
|[Roto]|#31 (06/ 85)|en|game
|[Review Action!]|#16 (02/ 84)|en|Review
|[An Introduction to ACTION!] |#17 + #18 (03+ 04/ 84)|en|Tutorial
|[Stars in 3D]|#20 (07/ 84)|en|Demo
|[Bounce in ACTION!]|#20 (07/ 84)|en|Game
|[Pulse in ACTION!]|#26 (01/ 85)|en|Demo
|[More Fun with Bounce!]|#27 (02/ 85)|en|Game
|[Demon Birds]|#28 (03/ 85)|en|Game
|[Roto]|#31 (06/ 85)|en|Game
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|[Getting in on the Action! 1]|#32 (07/ 85)|en|ON-LINE Action! Tutorial
|[Getting in on the Action! 2]|#35 (10/ 85)|en|ON-LINE Action! Tutorial
|[Sneak attack]|#36 (11/ 85)|en|game
|[Air hockey]|#38 (01/ 86)|en|game
|[D-Check]|#44 (07/ 86)|en|tool
|[Trails]|#50 (01/ 87)|en|tool for using the KoalaPad in ACTION!
|[ACTION! Zero Free]|#54 (05/ 87) |en|tool
|[Getting in on the Action! 1]|#32 (07/ 85)|en|Tutorial
|[Getting in on the Action! 2]|#35 (10/ 85)|en|Tutorial
|[Sneak attack]|#36 (11/ 85)|en|Game
|[Air hockey]|#38 (01/ 86)|en|Game
|[D-Check]|#44 (07/ 86)|en|Tool
|[Trails]|#50 (01/ 87)|en|Tool for using the KoalaPad in ACTION!
|[ACTION! Zero Free]|#54 (05/ 87) |en|Tool
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|[Demo Pretty]|Vol. 3 #7 (11/ 84)|en|demo from Antic I/O-Board
|[SPLASH in ACTION!]|Vol. 3 #12 (04/ 85)|en|demo
|[Game AMAZING in ACTION!]|Vol. 4 #1 (05/ 85)|en|game
|[View 3D]|Vol. 4 #2 (06/ 85)|en|tool
|[Dark Star]|Vol. 4 #3 (07/ 85)|en|game:Zapping Aliens With Radioactive Waste
|[Demo Pretty]|Vol. 3 #7 (11/ 84)|en|Demo from Antic I/O-Board
|[SPLASH in ACTION!]|Vol. 3 #12 (04/ 85)|en|Demo
|[Game AMAZING in ACTION!]|Vol. 4 #1 (05/ 85)|en|Game
|[View 3D]|Vol. 4 #2 (06/ 85)|en|Tool
|[Dark Star]|Vol. 4 #3 (07/ 85)|en|Game: Zapping Aliens With Radioactive Waste
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|[Video Stretch]|Vol. 5 #6 (10/ 86)|en|tool
|[Killer Chess]|Vol. 6 #10 (02/ 88)|en|game
|[Reardoor]|Vol. 6 #10 (02/ 88)|en|game
|[Frog]|Vol. 6 #10 (02/ 88)|en|game
|[Video Stretch]|Vol. 5 #6 (10/ 86)|en|Tool
|[Killer Chess]|Vol. 6 #10 (02/ 88)|en|Game
|[Reardoor]|Vol. 6 #10 (02/ 88)|en|Game
|[Frog]|Vol. 6 #10 (02/ 88)|en|Game
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|[Schnelle Vektoren in ACTION!]|#1 (1-2/ 87)|ge|tutorial:Action!-Center Teil 1
|[Schnelle Umwege in ACTION!]|#2 (3-4/ 87)|ge|tutorial:Action!-Center Teil 2
|[Interne Variablen]|#3 (5-6/ 87)|ge|tutorial:Action!-Center Teil 3
|[Was ist dran an Action!?]|#4 (7-8/ 87)|ge|tutorial:Action!-Center Teil 4
|[Schnelle Vektoren in ACTION!]|#1 (1-2/ 87)|de|Tutorial: Action!-Center Teil 1
|[Schnelle Umwege in ACTION!]|#2 (3-4/ 87)|de|Tutorial: Action!-Center Teil 2
|[Interne Variablen]|#3 (5-6/ 87)|de|Tutorial: Action!-Center Teil 3
|[Was ist dran an Action!?]|#4 (7-8/ 87)|de| Tutorial: Action!-Center Teil 4
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|[ACTION! Deel]| |nl|A collection of ACTION! Articles
|[ACTION! Deel]| |nl|A collection of Action Articles
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|[Musik in ACTION] |#10/85|ge| tutorial
|[ACTION! noch schneller] |#6-7/86|ge| tutorial
|[Musik in ACTION] |#10/85|ge| Tutorial
|[ACTION! noch schneller] |#6-7/86|ge| Tutorial
This page (revision-270) was last changed on 26-Mar-2023 02:03 by Administrator  Top