BASIC XL
Optimised Systems Software (O.S.S.) has done it again! Bill Wilkinson & Co. have put the cap on the BASIC language for Atari computers: BASIC XL. It's neatly wrapped and documented in a yellow binder which accompanies the bright orange cartridge.
The documentation begins with a 176-page tutorial entitled "30 Days to Understanding BASIC XL," written by Bill Wilkinson and Diane Goldstein. If you are a complete novice at BASIC programming, this book and a fair amount of determination are all you will need to learn to use your Atari computer. Bill and Diane introduce you to BASIC XL with the "chapter-a-day" system: 30 chapters, beginning with "Getting to know your computer" and extending through "Congratulations: 30 END."
Following the tutorial is the reference manual which documents the entire language, including 45 syntax expressions and keywords not found in 8K Atari BASIC. It's a well-known fact that Bill Wilkinson was part of the team that developed 8K Atari BASIC. He's written more than once of the bugs and limitations inherent in that language. BASIC A+ did much to alleviate those shortcomings, but it was disk-based and devoured too much memory. BASIC XL is on cartridge and, because of its memory bank design, uses no more RAM than Atari BASIC. Critics of the execution speed of other versions of BASIC will find little to complain about with regard to O.S.S.'s latest achievement. BASIC programs previously typed in from magazines and abandoned because of their boring snail-pace run at arcade speeds with BASIC XL. In fact, timing loops almost invariably have to be extended when running Atari BASIC programs with BASIC XL. That's right, BASIC XL is upward compatible with Atari BASIC, unlike MicroSoft BASIC. And it still offers MicroSoft-style string-handling, auto line-numbering, renumbering and line delete.
Other useful additions to the BASIC vocabulary include ELSE, WHILE, ENDIF, ENDWHILE, PRINT USING, TAB and TRACE/TRACEOFF. Player-missile graphics are of particular interest to many Atari programmers. Dozens of articles and programs in a variety of books and magazines are devoted to utility programs to help you design and use players and/or missiles. O.S.S. provides you with BASIC commands to deal with these pesky critters. just wait until you can use commands like MISSILE, BUMP, PMCOLOR, PMGRAPHICS, PMMOVE, PMWIDTH and PMCLR. You'll love it! SET is another new and extremely powerful command. It allows you to exercise control over a variety of system level functions. You can quickly and easily change 13 functions such as BREAK key enable/disable, Tab stop settings for the comma in PRINT statements, the prompt character for INPUT, auto DIMensioning, and LIST formatter to automatically indent structured statements. DOS commands directly from BASIC include DIR (disk directory), ERASE, PROTECT, UNPROTECT and RENAME.
And that's not all. You get additional functions like DPEEK/DPOKE, ERR, FIND, HSTICK/VSTICK, PEN, PMADR and SYS. You can type them all in caps, lower case or even reverse characters for all BASIC XL cares. Just think -- no more angrily hitting the CAPS/LOWR key after a syntax error!
Yes, I know that doesn't add up to 45 commands, yet. There are more advanced-technique keywords that some of you will undoubtedly drool over, so I suggest that you run (don't walk) directly to your friendly Atari dealer and buy your very own copy of BASIC XL immediately. It's the here-and-now solution to all your BASIC needs for your Atari computer.