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Amiga Basic

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AmigaBASIC
Original author(s)Microsoft
TypeBASIC

AmigaBASIC was an interpreted BASIC programming language implementation for the Amiga, designed and written by Microsoft. AmigaBASIC shipped with AmigaOS versions 1.1 to 1.3. It succeeded MetaComCo's ABasiC, which was included in AmigaOS 1.0 and 1.1, and was superseded by ARexx, a REXX-style scripting language, from AmigaOS version 2.0 onwards.

History and description

AmigaBASIC provided not only the common BASIC language, but also attempted to provide an easy-to-use API for the Amiga's unique graphics and sound capabilities. OBJECT commands, for example, made it easy to create moving objects – sprites and bobs that could be drawn with an external drawing program, Object editor, that was supplied with AmigaBASIC. An unusual feature of the language is that it theoretically allowed the calling of handwritten assembly language subprograms; however, this feature never worked because of a bug that failed to align the assembly language instructions correctly on a word boundary, as required by the Amiga's native MC68000 processor.

Compute!, a popular computer magazine published while AmigaBASIC was still being shipped, included many AmigaBASIC type in programs in their articles. These were typically implementations of simple programs such as rudimentary games, system and file utilities and desk accessories such as analog clocks and address books.

AmigaBASIC itself was rendered obsolete because of incompatibilities with AmigaOS 2.0 and the hardware successors to the Motorola 68000 CPU. Some incompatibilities were due to the disregard of programming guidelines set forth by Commodore.[citation needed] However, there were a number of third-party compiled BASIC languages released for the Amiga that could compile AmigaBASIC programs with minimal changes, like A/C BASIC or Cursor (see below). Some of these compiled BASICs continued to work with AmigaOS 2.0, and as they were compiled rather than interpreted, they generally ran much faster than the original.

Although AmigaBASIC was superseded by ARexx in AmigaOS 2.0, the two languages had very different functions and capabilities. Hobbyist programmers had changed by the time of AmigaOS 2.0's release and were more likely to be interested in scripting existing third party applications than in writing new programs entirely from scratch. ARexx was seen as better fitting their needs than BASIC.

Along with Microsoft's very similar BASIC for the Apple Macintosh, AmigaBASIC was the first BASIC interpreter to not require line numbers,[1][2] adopting instead a top-down approach to executing the lines of code, and labels to indicate the GOTO instruction where to jump. However programs that contained line numbers were able to run; the line numbers were simply treated as labels for the purpose of flow control. It was also the first Microsoft interpreted language capable of calling OS functions and dynamic libraries through the command "LIBRARY". For example: LIBRARY Graphics.library command invokes the standard Amiga Graphics.library from which to call functions.

Hello World in AmigaBASIC

' Hello World for AmigaBASIC
PRINT "Hello world!"

You can go one better by adding the following line: 

SAY TRANSLATE$ ("HELLO WORLD")

The Amiga will then say "Hello world" using speech synthesis in addition to displaying it on screen.

Other BASIC languages for AmigaOS

  • A/C Basic by Absoft was a compiler for AmigaBASIC programs that turned them into native executables that could be run without AmigaBASIC or the program's source code being present.
  • ABasiC was a non-Microsoft Basic produced by Metacomco that was shipped with Amiga 1000 systems with Workbench 1.0, before AmigaBasic was available. ABasiC provided a more traditional Basic programming environment, requiring numbered lines and lacking support for Intuition windowing. ABasiC did provide very good support for Amiga graphics and sound features otherwise, however.
  • ACE was an AmigaBASIC compiler, written by David Benn. The compiler produced Motorola 68000 assembly language which could be assembled and linked into native Amiga executables. The primary benefits were performance, lower run-time memory requirements, the ability to execute software without AmigaBASIC, and the ability to distribute software without having to release the actual source code. ACE also provided additional language constructs to expand upon the capability of the AmigaBASIC language.
  • AMOS BASIC, developed by François Lionet, was a commercial language which provided extensive support for the Amiga's graphics hardware and was designed primarily for games programming. It was used to write several commercial games and educational software.
  • Blitz BASIC was a direct commercial competitor to AMOS, published by Acid Software. Like AMOS, it was targeted at games programming, however it also included the ability to use the Amiga's APIs for use in application software. Its successor, Blitz Basic 2, was used to write several commercial games, including the popular Team17 game Worms.
  • Cursor was another AmigaBASIC editor and compiler.
  • GFA BASIC, originally developed for the Atari ST, was ported to the Amiga platform by its author, Frank Ostrowski.
  • HiSoft BASIC was another BASIC variant ported from the Atari ST to the Amiga.
  • True BASIC

References

  1. ^ "Getting Down to BASICs COMPUTE! July 1986". The Macintosh and the Amiga have BASIC languages that are almost identical, both created by Microsoft...Both Amiga BASIC and Macintosh BASIC abandon the line numbers used in previous BASICs.
  2. ^ "Amiga BASIC Style, COMPUTE! September 1986". There's a different style to BASIC programming on the Amiga. You should take a close look at new features; you'll discover concepts that lead to a radically different style of programming and user interaction...there are no line numbers in Amiga BASIC. They are not needed. Even with GOTO or GOSUB, it's usual to identify a line with a label, not a number. (You may include line numbers if you like-a feature included for the sake of compatibility with other BASICs-but since the line numbers are treated simply as labels, numeric order is irrelevant.
Notes
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