Mark Simonson

@OxC0FFEE Ooh, thanks. I did hear them talking about it on the podcast, but forgot. I'll try that when I get a chance.

Thanks for the suggestions. I might just try some of those ideas.

Interesting! I didn't realize. I'll check it out.

Makes me want to buy a cheap PC...

Another dumb question: Is it possible to enter ATASCII graphics characters in the FastBasic editor? The control key seems to be used exclusively for entering commands, blocking the typing of graphics characters. Is there a way around this? UPDATE: Never mind. Discovered that the escape key allows it.

Oh, right, I noticed that at some point. I only see instructions for use on Windows and Linux. I'm guessing the Linux instructions should work on MacOS? I guess I'm thinking of those fancy crosscompilers on Windows that integrate an emulator, such as WUDSN IDE (which even uses my Atari TrueType fonts :-).

Yeah, that would be great, but I pretty much only use Macs, which I've known for a long time puts me at a disadvantage with regard to Atari emulation, crosscompilers, etc. Not an insoluble problem, I know. ?

Yeah, I realized that pretty quickly, and it makes sense. It didn't take too long to convert a ~200 line BASIC XL program to FastBasic. I have to say, the the program flow in the FastBasic version is much clearer (due to its structured nature) and easier to read (I love using whitespace).

It's too bad it lacks an immediate mode (unless I'm missing something). That's one thing I like about other BASICs. It's often useful to work with a language interactively to try things out or to inspect variables after a run. Otherwise, I like it a lot.

Ah, okay. Thanks!

One other thing: I noticed that GR. 2+16 doesn't seem to work. I get a GR. 0 screen if I do that.

Pfff! The one thing I hadn't tried yet. Thanks!

I'm new at FastBasic, and I've run into a roadblock before I've barely started. I can't seem to find an answer anywhere. To learn it, I'm converting one of my old BASIC XL programs, which includes a title screen in GR. 2. I assume the graphics modes work the same as in other Atari BASICs, but I can't seem to display anything in GR. 2. The GR. 2 part of the screen at the top is just black. PRINT statements only seem to affect the GR. 0 "window" at the bottom of the screen. I've tried PUT, but that doesn't seems to work either. I've also tried "PRINT #6;", which just gives a parsing error. Nothing. I've looked through the documentation for FastBasic, but it seems to imply that graphics modes should work just like other BASICs. Am I missing something obvious?

@OxC0FFEE I probably saw that Compute article and may have got the idea from it, although it only hints at what I figured out. I mentioned in the interview that the GTIA text article was published in the TAIG newsletter, but I'm not totally sure that was the case. The good news is that I still have a copy of it (or a draft if it was never published). I've formatted it (using the illustrations I made in MacPaint in 1985) and saved it as a PDF and attached it here. I've also attached an Atari BASIC demo. It creates a simple character set containing four characters with mode 9 grayscale gradients and then displays them randomly on a GTIA text mode field (graphics 0 + GPRIOR (623) set to 96). GTIA Text v2.pdf METAL2.LIS

For at least part of the time, I had my tv set on its side, and had to rotate the joystick counterclockwise 90° to match the orientation. ?