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Turbo-BASIC XL - Expanded Documentation


MrFish

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I see one extension file named SCROLL.XTB. However, I don't see any reference to scrolling in the documentation. I'm wondering if the documentation for this is missing, or whether the extension is actually for something not related to scrolling? If you have any more information or disks related to these extensions I'd be interested in checking them out.

 

OK, nevermind. All the XTB files are just examples. I thought they were part of the extension architecture that was loaded (i.e. features could be disabled by removing the extensions or renaming the files).

 

I've tested most of the functionality (on my own, before I realized there were example programs). It's a pretty decent set of basic extensions. The P/M addition is nice to have -- at least for basic usage -- except, as far as I can tell, there is no way to access missiles, which I find a little strange. Never the less it's simple to use. The ALERT dialogue is interesting, but not really configurable (i.e. Colors and position can't be changed. Not being able to change the position results in it being slightly clipped for NTSC systems.).

Edited by MrFish
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Is this supposed to work with DOS 2.5? I remember being able to use an address for DOS 2.5. All it's doing for me -- at least in emulation -- is redrawing the DOS menu.

 

I am not sure, but I think I have read somewhere, that if you load TB XL and then go to DOS you can re-enter TB XL with "M" run at adress $2080; it could be that MEM.SAV has to be active to make this work; since I do not program in AB or TB XL (I am no programmer), I have never tested this.

 

Ah, that was the problem. I forgot about using MEM.SAV. It's been a long time since I've had a reason to return to TBXL from DOS, since I'm using it exclusively in emulation, and have a host of alternative means for file manipulation other than Atari DOS.

 

So, I'll add this information into the next revision of the manual as well.

Edited by MrFish
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There exist various enhancements for Atari Basic, believe it or not, there are also some enhancements for TB XL, e.g. an "Extended TB XL" PD-disk with some extra routines and functions (not sure if these are useful or not). Attached the disk here...

 

Alright, I put the blitter through some paces. I thought it was a little more flexible at first. But after closer inspection I found that the masks are limited to 8 x 8 pixels. I'm not even sure what I would use such a mask for. Basically it's just going to give you patterning for all but the very smallest of objects. The other part of it's functionality that isn't very flexible is that the paste buffer is defined by the cut object, which needs to be drawn on the screen. So you can't just point to a buffer and paste from it. Of course you could fake it out by changing the screen pointer to your buffer, and then cutting -- which is actually copying (not cutting) -- from your buffer. Not a huge deal. The other thing is that it only works as expected in single color modes.

 

The speed is about what you'd expect, given that you can copy and paste across byte boundaries. Here's a couple blit exercises I did to get an idea. You wouldn't want to do animation or anything with it, but it's quick enough to put image clippings on the screen for displaying.

 

Blitter Tests.zip

Edited by MrFish
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Hey,

 

I am still trying to translate the german text into english... (not easy when you are no programmer).

 

Looks like you are able to use eXtended Turbo Basic without the docs.

 

Afair, XTB had been created by Thorsten Karwoth, he is also the author of Atari Macro Assembler 4.32, Atari Macro Assembler XE 2.1, Power Packer, Packer and Linker, Megablast, MyDOS Batchfile Enhancement, Laser Duell, Soundmonitor Professional and a few other programs. I guess that after creating XTB he moved on with Assembler programming...

 

Greetings, Andreas Koch.

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I am still trying to translate the german text into english... (not easy when you are no programmer).

 

Looks like you are able to use eXtended Turbo Basic without the docs.

 

I can figure most things out so far with the help of google. But of course it always helps to have precise as possible documentation for programming languages.

 

 

Afair, XTB had been created by Thorsten Karwoth, he is also the author of Atari Macro Assembler 4.32, Atari Macro Assembler XE 2.1, Power Packer, Packer and Linker, Megablast, MyDOS Batchfile Enhancement, Laser Duell, Soundmonitor Professional and a few other programs. I guess that after creating XTB he moved on with Assembler programming...

 

Interesting information. I'd known of Megablast and the 130XE Macro Assembler. Soundmonitor Pro looks cool. Do you know if he's still active in the Atari world, via ABBUC or otherwise?

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  • 1 year later...

Final formatting and corrections. Also added TBXL memory map and compiler instructions. PDF'ed and bookmarked.

 

attachicon.gifTurbo-BASIC XL - Expanded Documentation.pdf

I was wondering about one statement in the documentation:

"You have a useable RAM of 34,021 bytes. This is 1,747 more bytes than Atari BASIC "

When I boot into Atari BASIC, I have 37,902 bytes free on an XL or XE machine.

 

thanks

 

Randy

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I was wondering about one statement in the documentation:

"You have a useable RAM of 34,021 bytes. This is 1,747 more bytes than Atari BASIC "

When I boot into Atari BASIC, I have 37,902 bytes free on an XL or XE machine.

 

thanks

 

Randy

The docs also say that on an XE you have to hold down the OPTION key to disable BASIC in order to load Turbo BASIC. In my experience, I didn't have to do that, at least not in the emulator.

 

Randy

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I was wondering about one statement in the documentation:

"You have a useable RAM of 34,021 bytes. This is 1,747 more bytes than Atari BASIC "

When I boot into Atari BASIC, I have 37,902 bytes free on an XL or XE machine.

For the purposes of the comparison, the documentation assumes you have DOS installed when using BASIC. With 37,902 bytes free when using Atari BASIC, you have no DOS. TBXL has a fixed user program space, meanwhile, beginning well clear of DOS.

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For the purposes of the comparison, the documentation assumes you have DOS installed when using BASIC. With 37,902 bytes free when using Atari BASIC, you have no DOS. TBXL has a fixed user program space, meanwhile, beginning well clear of DOS.

Ah, yes, I should have thought of that. Any idea why it says you have to disable BASIC on an XE machine?

 

Thanks, Jonathan!

 

Randy

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The docs also say that on an XE you have to hold down the OPTION key to disable BASIC in order to load Turbo BASIC. In my experience, I didn't have to do that, at least not in the emulator.

 

I noticed the same thing to be true since back in the 80's, and it was my main language, which I was running on a 130XE. So yes, I wonder why he mentions "XE" as if there is something particular about it over the XL's.

Edited by MrFish
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Maybe it is a leftover from the earlier version 1.4 of TB that also worked on 48k machines. TB XL setups PORTB as it loads. No need to press Option. No difference between XL &XE.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Not sure if it mentions run at address 2080 to return from DOS to TB - there is a DOS2.5"TB" patch from Page6/Atari User mag that fixed this properly.

 

 

I am not sure, but I think I have read somewhere, that if you load TB XL and then go to DOS you can re-enter TB XL with "M" run at adress $2080; it could be that MEM.SAV has to be active to make this work; since I do not program in AB or TB XL (I am no programmer), I have never tested this.

 

 

 

Ah, that was the problem. I forgot about using MEM.SAV. It's been a long time since I've had a reason to return to TBXL from DOS, since I'm using it exclusively in emulation, and have a host of alternative means for file manipulation other than Atari DOS.

 

So, I'll add this information into the next revision of the manual as well.

 

Yes DOS2.5 "M" "run at address" 2080 works if you have an intact MEM.SAV but...

I found and imaged DOS2.5TB which has "B" "run Turbo BASIC" (again providing MEM.SAV is not overwritten when you are copying etc) :party:

DOS2.5TB.ATR

This should only be used on disks where Turbo Basic is being loaded! Could really do with finding the magazine article :)

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OK, nevermind. All the XTB files are just examples. I thought they were part of the extension architecture that was loaded (i.e. features could be disabled by removing the extensions or renaming the files).

 

I've tested most of the functionality (on my own, before I realized there were example programs). It's a pretty decent set of basic extensions. The P/M addition is nice to have -- at least for basic usage -- except, as far as I can tell, there is no way to access missiles, which I find a little strange. Never the less it's simple to use. The ALERT dialogue is interesting, but not really configurable (i.e. Colors and position can't be changed. Not being able to change the position results in it being slightly clipped for NTSC systems.).

 

I would like to try that extended TBXL, especially PM new commands, but I don't know what to do.

What file should I load? TURBASXL.COM seems standard TBXL.

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I would like to try that extended TBXL, especially PM new commands, but I don't know what to do.

What file should I load? TURBASXL.COM seems standard TBXL.

 

Actually I had some trouble running these myself. It doesn't want to run the ways you'd normally expect. Loading using BLOAD produces a "Garbage" error from TBXL, and using the LOAD BINARY from DOS 2.5 results in the machine locking. The only way I was able to get them to load was by deleting DUP.SYS and then renaming the extensions binary to DUP.SYS. It seemed to work ok, but then you lose DUP.SYS which isn't good. I didn't take the time look into the situation further after that. There's nothing in the documentation either about how the extensions are supposed to be loaded.

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Paul, my problem is I am not able to try the new commands found in the documentation.

 

You was able to do blitter tests, so I think you managed to use new commands.

Which file should I load to try new commands?

TURBOBASXL.COM? After having loaded that file I get ERROR whenever I type new commands.

What is TUREX.COM?

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Paul, my problem is I am not able to try the new commands found in the documentation.

 

You was able to do blitter tests, so I think you managed to use new commands.

Which file should I load to try new commands?

TURBOBASXL.COM? After having loaded that file I get ERROR whenever I type new commands.

What is TUREX.COM?

 

Errmm,

 

TUREX.COM is the enhancement for TB XL you are looking for. So, load TB XL, then BLOAD or BRUN the TUREX.COM file. You now have an extended version of TB XL with various new commands. Take a look at the TUREX.TXT file, it is the german documentation which shows all available extra commands...

 

As mentioned before, all *.XTB files are only examples for the TB XL enhancement. (The "Extended TB XL" was originally released as an *.ARC file, I also put this file on the disk together with Unarc.COM; but you already find all unarced files on the disk, so the ARC file is kinda redundant and just there for archiving purposes.)

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TUREX.COM is the enhancement for TB XL you are looking for. So, load TB XL, then BLOAD or BRUN the TUREX.COM file. You now have an extended version of TB XL with various new commands. Take a look at the TUREX.TXT file, it is the german documentation which shows all available extra commands...

 

As mentioned before, all *.XTB files are only examples for the TB XL enhancement. (The "Extended TB XL" was originally released as an *.ARC file, I also put this file on the disk together with Unarc.COM; but you already find all unarced files on the disk, so the ARC file is kinda redundant and just there for archiving purposes.)

 

As I mentioned the BLOAD command produces an error when attempting to load in TBXL, but I had never tried BRUN (thinking it would result in the same error), which does seem to work (although I haven't tested functionality yet).

Edited by MrFish
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Do you know who has written the Extended TB XL?

 

Maybe we can get the source code from him? Even the source code of TB, too?

 

Because, he must have knew it...

 

Yes,

 

I already mentioned it in an earlier post (nr. 24 ?) - it was Thorsten Karwoth ! He is the author of Laser Duell, Megablast XE, Macro Assembler 4.3 and Macro Assembler 2.1, MyDOS Batchfile enhancement, Powerpacker and Linker, Tron, Soundmonitor Prof. and other programs.

 

You can find his name in the TUREX.COM file if you look at it with a disk-editor...

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Andreas,

 

with BLOAD I get:

READY

BLOAD "D:TUREX.COM

ERROR- 17 GARBAGE AT LINE 32672

 

With BRUN, TUREX.COM is loaded and works.

 

So, everytime people have to do those steps?

How can an Enhanced TBXL program be distributed?

 

Errrm,

 

since I am no programmer I do not know how to distribute enhanced/extended TB XL programs. Maybe it is possible to merge TB XL and the TUREX.COM file into one program (using e.g. Superpacker by Bewesoft or Superpacker by TeBe) ?!? Under DOS one can use copy+append to merge two files, but here some extra work is nescessary I guess to make TB XL and TUREX.COM (extended TB XL) work fully correct as one single file...

 

Believe it or not, I never used the extended TB XL file, so I did not know that it can only be loaded with BRUN (and not with BLOAD). I have dozens (maybe one-hundred?) Atari Basic enhancements in my collection, that I also never used... but again, I am no programmer...

 

Afaik, Thorsten Karwoth worked a lot (and programmed a lot) with MyDOS. If I remember correctly there are two XIO commands for binary load under MyDOS, XIO 39 and XIO 40, maybe they have something to do with that case. Or maybe you have to use a) MyDOS and b) the MyDOS batchfile enhancement to load TB XL first and then the TUREX.COM (extended TB XL) file ?!?

 

It may sound strange, but I never could get e.g. Neotracker (Neo.COM) running, when loading as an Autorun.SYS (or *.AR0), however it works alright if I load it a) manually with option "L" binary load and typing in its name or b) automatically from a batchfile (e.g. under Turbo-DOS XL/XE or under MyDOS with batchfile enhancement and a batchfile that just had the command RUN [Return] NEO.COM). Maybe there is a similar behaviour of the TUREX.COM file... but I am only wild guessing here...

Edited by CharlieChaplin
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