Atari ST BASIC
Atari ST BASIC (edit-window hidden)
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| Original author(s) | MetaComCo |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1985 |
| Development status | Historic,Discontinued |
| Type | BASIC |
Atari ST BASIC (or ST Basic) was the first dialect of BASIC that was produced for the Atari ST line of computers. It was bundled with all new STs in the early years of the ST's lifespan, and quickly became the standard BASIC for that platform. However, many users disliked it, and improved dialects of BASIC quickly came out to replace it.
Atari commissioned MetaComCo to write a version of BASIC that would take advantage of the GEM environment on the Atari ST. This was based on a version already written for Digital Research called DR-Basic, which was bundled with DR's CP/M-86 operating system. The result was called ST BASIC. At the time the ST was launched, ST BASIC was bundled with all new STs.
A further port of the same language called ABasiC ended up being supplied for a time with the Amiga, but Commodore quickly replaced it with the Microsoft-developed AmigaBASIC.
The user interface consisted of four windows. An edit-window in which one could enter the source code, a list-window where the entire source code could be browsed, a command/debug-window where instructions were entered that were immediately executed, and the output-window.
However, the windows could only be selected with the mouse, this became cumbersome.
As it came standard with many early STs for several years, it rapidly became the standard BASIC for the ST. If a computer magazine was to publish some code, or if someone was to distribute a BASIC file, then using ST BASIC would maximise the number of people who could run the program.
However, many people found it inadequate for their needs. Although many people who had just upgraded from an 8-bit home computer found it to be faster than the BASIC for their old computer, and were impressed with the ST's graphical abilities and the ability to have the program's output display in a different window than the program listing, they soon found that not only did it contain several bugs, but that once other BASICs started to come out on the ST, they realised just how slow ST BASIC was, and that the use of GEM was more of a hindrance once the novelty wore off. It did not help matters that GEM on the ST was limited to four windows and that the ST BASIC interface already used four windows.
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