mff@wuphys.UUCP (Swamp Thing) (07/13/85)
I've spent a couple of hours playing around with an extended basic available for the C64 on ROM cartidge, and thought I'd pass along some impressions. (If you're familiar with it, then just 'n' away.) All in all, I was very impressed. It's a vast improvement over the resident Basic. Something like 140 new commands are added. The several catagories these fall into are: 1) Graphics. Some really nice stuff here. Commands like HIRES, DRAW, PLOT, etc. You can fill a region, draw rectangle, define arbitrary shapes (and draw them at various sizes). One problem with this later feature is that only a finite number of rotation angles can be selected (but it's better then none at all). There's nothing here you couldn't do with POKE's, but it sure is easier. And MUCH faster. In the highest-res. mode, only 2 colors( background and drawing ) can be used. There is a color mode, which is at half the resolution, which allows the use of 3 simultaneous colors. 2) Math. Things like MOD, XOR, DIV, hex and binary numbers. 3) Miscelaneous. You can define PROC's (named subroutines), and a limited form of global and local variables. Automatic renumbering and numbering. Global substitutions (Thank God!). A couple of commands which make disc usage easier to use. MERGE (for loading parts of a program from different files). TRACE for debugging. There's more stuff that I don't remember. I believe the package was purchased on sale for ~$25, and came with 2 books. Definetly worth the price. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who has used this, both pro and con. DISCLAIMER: I am in no way associated with the manufacturers of this product. Mark F. Flynn Department of Physics Washington University St. Louis, MO 63130 ihnp4!wuphys!mff ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark." P. Floyd