BASIC Programming
A little spot of nostalgia as I haven't done anything on PoP in the past week:I enjoy reading the posts on the recently formed Atari 2600 Basic Programming Forum. A lot of the issues that are raised, and the problems faced remind me of my own experiences with BASIC programming many years ago. I think it is a shame that modern computers do not come with a built-in BASIC interpreter as it is a great tool for teaching programming to beginners without the complexities of pointers or objects (provided that we are not talking about Visual BASIC ).I started with BASIC programming when I was around 7 years old, back in the early 1980s. Through various experiments on the school computer (described in a previous entry), I figured out the essentials, assisted by type-in magazine listings and library books. As a result of these experiments, most of which were simple games, my ambitions quickly turned to becoming a real games programmer. At that time there were frequent stories in the newspapers about wizz-kid programmers who made millions, though I'm not convinced they were actually true! I used to fill books with game ideas, waiting for the time when my programming skills would be good enough to create all of the wonderful games that I could imagine!It didn't take long before the limitations of the BASIC interpreter became very apparent to me. There was precious little memory, and even simple programs took an age to run. I knew that if I was to become a real games programmer then I would have to learn assembly language. But, compared to BASIC, it appeared to be a horribly complex and cryptic method of programming. Nonetheless, I had come this far, and I wasn't about to give up! I learned about binary numbers, and memorised the 6502 mnemonics from a book. I figured out how to use the accumulator and the stack, and I could write simple math operations. However, despite my best efforts at the time, I just couldn't figure out how to put it all together to make a game. For some reason, the complexity of writing a complete program was just too great, and I couldn't make the necessary leap. As a result, I stuck with BASIC for many years, moving to STOS BASIC for game creation when I later purchased an Atari ST. It wasn't until I reached university that the mysteries of assembly language became suddenly clear, and now I just can't figure out why I had so much difficulty.Looking back, it is clear why most machines of the time were bundled with BASIC. Despite the syntactic differences, there are many similarities between BASIC and 8-bit assembly language. The core compiler in batari BASIC is very straightforward as many of the BASIC operations can be directly mapped into assembly. Nonetheless, I can see that many people are struggling with the same issues that I faced. Despite the power of the tool, the limitations of BASIC programing remain, and it will be necessary for them to make the leap to assembly at some point. However, there is something about assembly language that remains mysterious and frightening to even the most accomplished of BASIC programmers. I hope some of them will be able to make the leap that eluded me all those years ago. Chris
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