AtariWiki V3.1: Turbo-BASIC XL

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TURBO-BASIC XL#

TURBO-BASIC XL is a fast Basic Interpreter for the Atari 8bit XL/XE. Written by Frank Ostrowski and first published by German Happy Computer magazine. TURBO-BASIC XL is fully compatible to Atari Basic with an extended set of commands. There is also a TURBO-BASIC XL Compiler. A handbook (in German) can be found at http://www.strotmann.de/~highland/bib/bibindex.html

TURBO-BASIC XL is compatible with Atari BASIC, but it runs three to four times faster when interpreted and has advanced program control and I/O commands. Using the TURBO-BASIC XL compiler makes programs run 15-20 times faster than Atari BASIC and it will compile Atari BASIC programs too!

TURBO-BASIC XL will only work on XL and XE computers with at least 64K. Ostrowski is also the author of GFA BASIC for the Atari ST, which is being distributed in the U.S. by MichTron.

TUREX.COM is the enhancement for TURBO-BASIC XL you are looking for. So, load TURBO-BASIC XL, then BLOAD or BRUN the TUREX.COM file. You now have an extended version of TURBO-BASIC XL with various new commands. Take a look at the TUREX.TXT file, it is the german documentation which shows all available extra commands...

As mentioned before, all *.XTB files are only examples for the TURBO-BASIC XL enhancement. (The "Extended TURBO-BASIC XL" was originally released as an *.ARC file, I also put this file on the disk together with Unarc.COM; but you already find all unarced files on the disk, so the ARC file is kinda redundant and just there for archiving purposes.)

Afair, XTB had been created by Thorsten Karwoth, he is also the author of Atari Macro Assembler 4.32, Atari Macro Assembler XE 2.1, Power Packer, Packer and Linker, Megablast, MyDOS Batchfile Enhancement, Laser Duell, Soundmonitor Professional and a few other programs. Thank you so much Thorsten, for giving your work into PD. We really owe you very much. The community is deep in your debt!

Wikipedia: Turbo Basic XL (english)
Wikipedia: Turbo Basic XL (deutsch)
Multi Zoom Master Graphics Program by Carsten Strotmann
Player Missile in Turbo Basic
Simple Blitter

Source Codes#

After years of investigation and paying government fees, AtariWiki can disclose, that the author of TURBO-BASIC XL, Frank Ostrowski, has left us in 2011 at age 50 due to a severe disease. Deep investigations, regarding his brother, his sisters, his colleagues and so on, come to the conclusion, that the source code is lost in time. Even the enhanced version from Thorsten Karwoth is lost, because of a water damage in Thorsten's home, which destroyed all listings and diskettes. That is a very sad status, but there is still hope. If someone out there in the galaxy can build a source code of this marvelous program from the original object code, like Lorenz did with Star Raiders Star Raiders source code by Lorenz Wiest, we can rebuild it, we have the capability to build the best Basic for Atari ever, faster, stronger, better. We call the six million dollar Basic just simple Ultimate Basic. With all the source codes now in PD: Articles#section-Articles-ProgrammingLanguages it should be possible. Stay tuned.