Simons' BASIC

This product is widely, but incorrectly, called "Simon's BASIC", because of confusion between the first name "Simon" and the surname "Simons".
Simons' BASIC

The Simons' BASIC start-up screen. Note the altered background and text colours (vs the ordinary C64 blue tones), and the reduction of available BASIC program memory by the 8 KB used by the cartridge (memory-mapped).

The Simons' BASIC start-up screen. Note the altered background and text colours (vs the ordinary C64 blue tones), and the reduction of available BASIC program memory by the 8 KB used by the cartridge (memory-mapped).
Original author(s) David Simons
Developer(s) Commodore
Initial release 1983 (1983)
Written in BASIC 2.0
Operating system Commodore 64
Type extension

Simons' BASIC was an extension to BASIC 2.0 for the Commodore 64 home computer. Written by 16-year-old British programmer David Simons in 1983, it was distributed by Commodore in cartridge format.

Simons' BASIC manual front page.
Simons' BASIC cartridge.
One of the early Simons' BASIC cartridges, with the misspelled label contributing to the software's naming confusion.

Features

Simons' BASIC added 114 additional keywords to BASIC 2.0.[1] These included commands to ease the coding of sprites, high-resolution and multicolour graphics, and sound. In addition, commands were also implemented to aid in structured programming. Keywords to assist in writing and editing BASIC programs, similar to those in the VIC-20 Programmer's Aid cartridge, were also included. Also, programs written in Simons' BASIC could employ hexadecimal numbers in assignments and calculations by including a $ prefix, or binary numbers by utilizing a % prefix.

Because a portion of the cartridge data was mapped into memory at addresses $8000–$9FFF, which overlapped part of the standard C64 BASIC RAM, the amount of available memory for BASIC programs was 8 KB less than that of a standard C64 configuration.

A further extension to the Commodore V2 Basic was also written by Simons and released by Commodore on floppy disk as Simons' Basic 2. It could not be released on cartridge because the original Simons' Basic cartridge had to be present in order to use the extension. Simons' Basic 2 added 91 extra commands including a much coveted RENUMber command which also took care of renumbering the destinations of GOTO and GOSUB statements.[2]

The 114 keywords

Sprite (MOB) handling keywords

High resolution graphics handling keywords

Other graphics handling keywords

Sound handling keywords

Keyboard input handling keywords

Input peripheral handling keywords

Sprite/custom character definition keywords

Error trapping keywords

Disk handling keywords

Printer handling keywords

String manipulation keywords

Text formatting keywords

Maths keywords

Programmer's aid keywords

Security-related keywords

Structured programming keywords

Miscellaneous keywords

Other

Trivia

The band Barcelona titled their 1999 debut album Simon Basic in tribute. The album includes the song "C-64".

Reception

Creative Computing stated that Simons' BASIC "almost makes the 64 into a new computer. (Probably the one it should have been in the first place.)". It praised the "very fine manual" as a contrast to Commodore's usually poor documentation, and predicted that it would become "the standard language for programming the machine … Commodore had better be planning to manufacture lots of copies because they will go fast".[3] Ahoy! wrote "If you do any programming in BASIC and should happen to see this product on a dealer's shelf, do not ask any questions—do not hesitate—just buy it!". The magazine praised Simons' BASIC's power and "excellent manual", and stated that "its price makes it one of the biggest bargains available for the Commodore 64".[4] RUN's review was less favorable, stating that its "many powerful and useful commands … were, unfortunately, implemented very poorly for a commercial package. There is very little command parameter checking, and many things have been overlooked or ignored."[5]

References

  1. Simons' Basic User Manual (Published by Commodore)
  2. Simons' Basic 2 User Manual (Published by Commodore)
  3. Onosko, Tim (1983-11). "Simons' Basic.". Creative Computing. p. 60. Retrieved 27 June 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. Kevelson, Morton A. (1984-02). "Simons' BASIC". Ahoy!. pp. 57–58. Retrieved 27 June 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. Baker, Robert W. (1985-04). "A Review of Simons' Basic". RUN. pp. 94–95. Retrieved 27 June 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 20, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.