BBC BASIC: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:52, 24 June 2005

Revision as of 01:05, 1 July 2005

Line 1:

'''BBC BASIC''' was developed in [[1981]] as a native [[programming language]] for the [[MOS Technology 6502]] based [[Acorn Computers Ltd|Acorn]] [[BBC Micro]] home/personal computer, mainly by [[Roger Wilson]]. It was a version of the [[BASIC programming language]] adapted for a [[United Kingdom|U.K.]] computer literacy project of the [[BBC]].

BBC BASIC, based on the older [[Atom BASIC]] (for the [[Acorn Atom]]), extended traditional BASIC with named procedures and functions, <code>REPEAT-UNTIL</code> loops, and <code>IF-THEN-ELSE</code> structures. The [[interpreter (computer software)|interpreter]] also included powerful statements for controlling the BBC Micro's four-channel sound output and its high-resolution graphics display. Significantly, BBC BASIC was also fitted with an easily accessible in-line [[assembler]], allowing programmers to write [[MOS Technology 6502|6502]] assembly language programs directly in BASIC code. This was a unique feature among home/personal computer BASIC interpreters at the time.

One of the unique features of BBC BASIC was the presence of an inline assembler allowing users to write [[MOS Technology 6502|6502]] assembly language programs. The assembler was fully integrated into the BASIC interpreter and shared variables with it. This allowed developers to write not just assembly language code, but also BASIC code to emit assembly language, making it possible to use code generation techniques and even write simple compilers in BASIC.

BASIC I, the original version, available on BBC A and BBC B, was superseded by BASIC II which added <code>OPENUP</code> and <code>OSCLI</code> keywords, along with offset assembly and bug fixes.