Atari St Basic – Wikipedia

L’ Atari ST BASIC (O ST Basic ) It is a dialect of the basic programming language offered in combination with Atari ST computers during the first period of its marketing.

Due to the numerous bugs and its slowness if compared to other types of development environment, ^[first] Other manufacturers have offered over time more performing alternative basic interpreters, including GFA-Basic, Stos Basic and Omikron Basic: the latter has replaced St Basic as a language combined with the computer in the last part of the commercial life of the ‘Atari st.

Atari commissioned a version of the Basic to Metacomco which could take advantage of the Gem environment of the ARTARI ST. Metacomco reused a basic that he had already developed for Digital Research called DR-Basic , which was combined with the Digital Research CP/M-86 operating system. The result was the St Basic, which was combined with all the new Atari st. A port of the same Basic was included in the provision of programs of the rival of the ARTARI ST, the Amiga 1000.

Graphic [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The user interface was made up of 4 windows. The editor window was the one in which the user entered the source code; The list of the list was the one in which the user could flow the entire source of the program; The control/debug window was the one in which commands and instructions could be inserted that were carried out immediately; The output window was the one in which the data produced by the program appeared.

Since the windows could only be selected through the mouse and on a high resolution desktop, it was not very practical.

Implementation [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Since he was offered together with the AST for some time since the beginning of his marketing, he quickly became the Basic Standard environment of the Ast: if a magazine wanted to publish the code of a program or if someone wanted to distribute a basic file, then The use of the Ast Basic made it possible to maximize the number of users who could use the software.

At the expense of its diffusion and its use, many users considered it inadequate for their needs. To those who came from 8 -bit computers, the Atari St Basic could perhaps be faster than the interpreters of their machines, impress for the graphic skills of the AS, for the possibility of having the program output in a window other than the one that contained the list: despite this they soon understood that not only the interpreter contained numerous bugs ^[first] But, as soon as other interpreters began to appear on the market, they understood how slow the St Basic was and like the use of the Gem, after the novelty of the first impact, was more an obstacle than a utility (the fact that the Gem on the ‘St could only manage 4 windows and that the interface of the AST Basic used it just 4 prevented from opening other applications).

One of the most famous bugs of the AST Basic was the command PRINT 75.3 , which crashed the Atari st ^[first] .

The low quality of the Ast Basic quickly opened the market to alternative basic interpreters: the Fast Basic and the GFA Basic were the first to be proposed. Since these were not free, a program written with one of these Basic could only be performed if you owned the corresponding interpreter: to solve this problem, compilers began to create executable files starting from the sources of these basic so that they could turn on any st. The programs to be typed began to be desuetic and, at the same time, the need to have a standard basic.

After them other interpreters appeared, such as Hisoft Basic, Stos Basic and Omikron Basic: the latter replaced the St Basic as Basic offered together with the computer.

• Understanding Atari ST BASIC Programming , Tim Knight, 1986, ISBN 0-89588-344-9
• Atari ST BASIC Quick Reference Guide , Atari, 1986, rev. A
• ST BASIC Sourcebook and Tutorial , Atari, 1986, rev. B