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Atari BASIC#

Background#

Atari BASIC is the "standard" BASIC dialect for the 8-bit series. It was originally sold separately as a (relatively expensive) 8k ROM cartridge. Starting with the 1200XL, the ROMs were included inside the machine. There are three versions, the original version, retroactively known as Revision A, and the updated Revision B and C which fixed various bugs.

Atari originally licensed the 6502-assembler code for Microsoft BASIC. This came in two versions, a 9k one and a more widely used 12k version. The difference between the two was in the math library, the smaller version used 6-byte numbers while the larger used 9-byte numbers. The Atari hardware design limited cartridges to 8k, so the Atari programmers started with the smaller version and struggled to cut it down enough to fit in a cart. That was bad enough of its own, but they really wanted to add additional instructions to take advantage of the Atari's graphics and sound as well. Eventually they gave up and went looking for a 3rd party to do it for them.

Shepardson Microsystems Inc, or SMI for short, won the contract. They proposed a simplified syntax and the cutting of a number of rarely-used features, leaving more room for new commands for graphics and sound. Even then, the result required about 10k, so to cross the remaining gap to 8k, some of the core libraries were moved out of the language and into the operating system ROMs. This had the side-effect of allowing any other language on the Atari to use these routines as well.

By the time SMI was hired, Atari was in something of a rush to get the BASIC. They were planning to show the machines in January 1979, and the contract required SMI to deliver the final version by April of that year. SMI completed it well in advance of the deadline, in October 1978, so Atari took an early version of the code with them to the CES show in January. To SMI's surprise, they learned that Atari had begun burning that version to ROM, even though it had several known bugs. SMI offered an updated version with various fixes, but Atari didn't bother using it, and instead shipped the buggy version for years.

Two major pieces of code were moved out of the BASIC into the OS ROM. The first was a set of graphics routines to set up the screen, draw lines, and similar. The second was the floating point math system, based on a new implementation of the 6-byte binary-coded-decimal (BCD) format. Both libraries were notoriously slow. Generally, Atari BASIC was among the slowest BASICs of its era, both due to the OS code and two problems involving loops.

The performance issues led to a profusion of 3rd party BASICs, some of which continue to be developed to this day. By replacing the math libraries and fixing these two loop issues, speed improves on the order of 3 to 5 times in most programs, and this is a common feature of 3rd party BASICs like TURBO-BASIC XL and Altirra Basic. For even higher performance, FastBasic uses a p-code system that can be quickly interpreted.

Design notes#

Atari BASIC has some key differences with the more common MS-derived BASICs found on most contemporary machines. This included the 6-byte vs. 9-byte math, but also included numerous syntax changes as well. Generally, one can describe Atari BASIC's design philosophy as "modeless" and "orthogonal".

Most BASICs of the era had the concept of "immediate mode" and "program mode", and some commands could only be used in one more or the other. A good example in MS BASIC is the LIST command, which could only be used in immediate mode, at the "command line". Atari BASIC removed this limitation, one could write a program containing 10 LIST.

Additionally, most BASICs had commands that read input or produced output, for example, the INPUT can be thought of as the opposite of PRINT. Atari BASIC was orthogonal in that every such command had a partner. For instance, LIST produces output, so the new command ENTER reversed this, reading a program listing from a device. This opened up a number of possible overlay techniques that other BASICs lacked.

The most noticable difference between Atari BASIC and MS-derived versions is the string handling. Atari BASIC used a greatly simplified system of character-arrays instead of the dynamic strings in MS. This meant that all strings had to be predefined using DIM, and their length could not be changed during run-time. There are a number of advantages to this approach, notably speed, but memory handling is more difficult and conversion of standard programs from MS listings is more difficult.

What's missing#

In addition to differences like string handling, Atari BASIC also lacked some of the less-used features found in MS BASIC. Among these are...

• TAB and SPC, for formatting output
• PRINT USING, which formatted output
• INPUT "prompt", A$, which printed the prompt and placed the cursor at the end
• DEF FN, which defines mathematical functions
• ON X GOTO/GOSUB, similar to C's switch construct

Most 3rd party BASICs add many of these features, and more.

What's new#

To allow BASIC programmers access to the advanced features of the system, Atari BASIC added commands for defining the GRAPHICS, changing COLORs, MOVEing and drawing a LINETO, playing SOUND, and others.

Books#

• The Atari BASIC source book, contains the complete source code for Atari BASIC, fully described. Useful for anyone interested in interpreter design.
• Atari Basic Rev C Reference Manual
• ATARI Basic Leitfaden.pdf
• Atari BASIC Quick Reference Guide-Gilbert Held.pdf
• ATARI BASIC-Handbuch für Selbststudium und Praxis-BOB ALBRECHT, Le Roy Finkel, JERALD BROWN-Screen.pdf 214 Doppelseiten, OCR, 44,8 MB

CAR-Images#

• Basic Rev. C.car
• The Monkey Wrench.car Tool for better editing Basic programs, version I
• The Monkey Wrench II.car Tool for better editing Basic programs, version II

ROM-Images#

• Atari Basic Rev. A.rom
• Atari Basic Rev. B.rom
• Atari Basic Rev. C.rom

Atari Basic Course: An Invitation to Programming 1-3#

• An Invitation to Programming 1 CX4101
• An Invitation to Programming 2 CX4106
• An Invitation to Programming 3 CX4117

Kurs 1: Programmieren leicht gemacht-Lernen Sie BASIC mit Dagmar Berghoff-TXG4110#

• Programmieren leicht gemacht TXG4110

Kurs 2: Noch mehr BASIC-Lernen Sie BASIC mit Dagmar Berghoff-RXG 55007#

• Noch mehr BASIC RXG 55007

Kurs 3: BASIC für Fortgeschrittene-Lernen Sie BASIC mit Dagmar Berghoff#

• BASIC für Fortgeschrittene

Source and Tools#

• Atari BASIC Article in Wikipedia
• Atari Basic vs. Commodore C64 Basic vs. Apple II Basic
• Atari BASIC: the good, the bad and the ugly
• RPM810 Program to measure 810 disk speed
• Infoline Infoline for BASIC and ACTION!
• ST Mouse Driver for Basic
• Boolean Logic in BASIC
• Atari Basic Special Clear Screen (german)
• How to find the revision number of Atari Basic
• Basic Fast Stack and Fast Jump
• BASIC on-off from DOS XL commandline
• Page Flip Routine for Basic
• RAM Move Routine for Basic
• Basic Program Lister
• UUDecoder
• Create Data-Statements from binary load files
• Schnelle Player Bewegung in Basic (german)
• REV.B TO REV.C CONVERTER.txt Atari Basic Rev. B to Rev. C Converter as TXT file
• RevB2C.atr Atari Basic Rev. B to Rev. C Converter as ATR-image