Atari BASIC

Atari BASIC
Atari BASIC
	A program ready to run
Family	BASIC
Designed by	Paul Laughton; Kathleen O'Brien; Carol Shaw (manual); Keith Brewster (manual)
Developer	Shepardson Microsystems
First appeared	1979
Stable release	Revision C / 1983
Platform	Atari 8-bit computers
License	Commercial proprietary software
Influenced by
	Data General Business Basic
Influenced
	BASIC A+, BASIC XL, BASIC XE, Turbo-BASIC XL

Atari BASIC is an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that shipped with Atari 8-bit 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.

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. There are three versions of the software: the original cartridge-based "A", the built-in "B" for the 600XL/800XL, and the final "C" version in late-model XLs and the XE series. They only differ in terms of stability, with revision "C" fixing the bugs of the previous two.

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.

^ Lorenzo, Mark (2017). Endless Loop: The History of the BASIC Programming Language. Philadelphia: SE Books. p. 106. ISBN 978-1974-27707-0.

[SE_Books-1] Lorenzo, Mark (2017). Endless Loop: The History of the BASIC Programming Language. Philadelphia: SE Books. p. 106. ISBN 978-1974-27707-0.

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