AtariWiki V3.1: FastBasic

FastBasic#

Daniel Serpell (dsmc), June/July 2017

Background#

FastBasic is one of the newest BASICs for the Atari 8-bit platform. It includes most of the speed-up options found in previous versions, notably a new floating-point math library and the improvements to GOTO and FOR/NEXT performance. FastBasic also includes integer variables, as well as 8-bit and 16-bit arrays, which add even more performance when they can be used - and that is is "almost always".

On top of this, FastBasic uses a new full-screen editor instead of the classic line-number based systems of the past. Line-number-based editing was invented because early video terminals could not scroll, a problem few (if any) of the home computers had, but by the time they arrived the line-number constant was too ingrained in MS BASIC for people to think outside that box. FastBasic does, and this makes editing far easier. Gone are the days of typing in long strings of numbers to delete lines or move code around, all of this is now done using the cursor controls, as it always should have been.

FastBasic is a truly unique approach to the BASIC language on the Atari, a must-see program for everyone. AtariWiki deeply thanks dmsc from AtariAge for the license to publish his FastBasic here. Thank you dmsc, your help is very much appreciated. :-)