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Concept
Atari BASIC
Summary
Atari BASIC is an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that shipped with the Atari 8-bit family of 6502-based home computers. Unlike most American BASICs of the home computer era, Atari BASIC is not a derivative of Microsoft BASIC and differs in significant ways. It includes keywords for Atari-specific features and lacks support for string arrays, for example.
The language was distributed as an 8 KB ROM cartridge for use with the 1979 Atari 400 and 800 computers. Starting with the 600XL and 800XL in 1983, BASIC is built into the system.
Despite the Atari 8-bit computers running at a higher speed than most of its contemporaries, several technical decisions placed Atari BASIC near the bottom in performance benchmarks. The original authors addressed most of these issues in a series of improved versions: BASIC A+ (1981), BASIC XL (1983), and BASIC XE (1985). A host of third-party interpreters and compilers like Turbo-Basic XL also appeared.
The complete, annotated source code and design specifications of Atari BASIC were published as The Atari BASIC Source Book in 1983.
The machines that would become the Atari 8-bit family were originally developed as second-generation video game consoles intended to replace the Atari VCS. Ray Kassar, the new president of Atari, decided to challenge Apple Computer by building a home computer instead.
This meant the designs needed to include the BASIC programming language, the standard for home computers. In early 1978, Atari licensed the source code to the MOS 6502 version of Microsoft BASIC. It was offered in two versions: one using a 32-bit floating point format that was about 7800 bytes when compiled, and another using an extended 40-bit format that was close to 9 KB.
Even the 32-bit version barely fit into the 8 KB size of the machine's ROM cartridge format. Atari also felt that they needed to expand the language to support the hardware features of their computers, similar to what Apple had done with Applesoft BASIC.
Official source
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