TURBO-BASIC XL-Source Code now in PD and online! :-)))

[+CharlieChaplin]

Yep,

 

Ampel was either a) an abbreviation for several words (Atari Machine...) or b) simply a metaphor/allegory for the german word "Ampel" (which means traffic light in english)...

 

This is a german "Ampel":

 

Edited June 10, 2017 by CharlieChaplin

[+JAC!]

Ampel was either a) an abbreviation for several words (Atari Machine...)

 

Atari Maschinenprogramm Eingabe Listing = "Atari Machine Language Input Listing" - since AMPEL was a type in listing in itself.

http://www.stcarchiv.de/hc1987/12_ampel.php

[+JAC!]

When I played around with the original source disk I found myself constantly pressing "F1" in Altirra to speed things up. The I wondered what I was like for Frank Ostrowski to actually build Turbo BASIC XL not with our modern cross development tools and powerful machines, but on the actual hardware. So I created a double density source disk in BIBODOS format with BIBOASS and the 16 source files. The download contains the ATR image of the source disk and the DOS 2.5 target disk for the result plus readme file with the details.

 

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=TURBO-BASIC%20XL#section-TURBO-BASIC+XL-SourceCode

 

And last weekend I finally found the time to record from real hardware what it was like to for on the Atari for the Atari.

 

[sanny]

Time for a coffee while compiling...

 

I've got two (unrelated) questions:

 

• How do you switch booting AtariDOS and BiboDOS? It seems one is on D1: and and one is on D2:.
• This monitor looks exactly like the one I'm looking for. It says "Multi-System" at the bottom. Does is support PAL and NTSC both on the antenna and FBAS inputs? Could you give me the exact model # so I can look for it on the "big auction site"?

 

Ok, that were three questions...

[robdaemon]

And last weekend I finally found the time to record from real hardware what it was like to for on the Atari for the Atari.

 

 

I really enjoyed watching that video - thanks for posting it!

 

I've worked on C codebases on the PC that took this long to compile too, so I can really relate. Sometimes I wonder if I was a better programmer when I didn't get near immediate feedback on everything I wrote.

[sanny]

I've worked on C codebases on the PC that took this long to compile too, so I can really relate.

 

Now that you say that, I'm remembering it, too. Although it was a mixed assembly and Pascal code base.

 

I remember, first thing at the office in the morning was to compile everything from scratch. To start with a "clean base" (although almost nobody could have possibly changed something since yesterday evening). But it gave me time to get a coffee and browse some computer magazines before really starting with work.

 

 

 

Sometimes I wonder if I was a better programmer when I didn't get near immediate feedback on everything I wrote.

 

Same here...

[+JAC!]

• How do you switch booting AtariDOS and BiboDOS? It seems one is on D1: and and one is on D2:.
• This monitor looks exactly like the one I'm looking for. It says "Multi-System" at the bottom. Does is support PAL and NTSC both on the antenna and FBAS inputs? Could you give me the exact model # so I can look for it on the "big auction site"?

 

ad 1) BIBODOS can read & wite DOS 2.5 disks also.

ad 2) I don't have an NTSC machine to test if it could deal with that. I only use it with VBXE/PAL via SCART. You should PM biobern for questions on that.

[pirx]

We had the same problems in our games in MAC65 - the first thing to do was move entirely to ramdisk. I suppose this would speed up the compilation an order of magnitude.

Still crossassembling was the way to go a bit later on

[luckybuck]

That is the reason why Atari has used:

 

; THIS IS THE MODIFIED SEPTEMBER ATARI 400/800 COMPUTER OPERATING
; SYSTEM LISTING, MODIFIED TO ASSEMBLE ON THE MICROTEC CROSS
; ASSEMBLER.
; THIS VERSION IS THE ONE WHICH WAS BURNED INTO ROM.
; THERE IS A RESIDUAL PIECE OF CODE WHICH IS FOR LNBUG. THIS
; IS AT LOCATION $9000 WHICH IS NOT IN ROM.
;
; THIS IS THE REVISION B EPROM VERSION
.PAGE
;
;
; COLLEEN OPERATING SYSTEM EQUATE FILE
;
; NTSC/PAL ASSEMBLY FLAG
;
PALFLG = 0 ;0 = NTSC 1 = PAL
;

According to Carol Shaw even for the 2600 games... :-)

 

But normal users had to it the hard way, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.... (Famous man in 1961....)

Edited July 20, 2017 by luckybuck

[baktra]

Would it be worthwhile to get source code of the Turbo BASIC compiler 1.1?

 

It could be a neat tool when bugs of the compiler are fixed. I am asking that, because recently i have tried to compile relatively long program (but without any special language constructs), but it failed on a line with simple POKE and PEEK. (It was not the first line with PEEK and POKE of the program).

[luckybuck]

Sure, totally agree, TB source code took 31 years to get it...

We only can hope, that a good soul reads your post and publish it here, else anonymously via the wiki or github.

Of course, reverse engineering of the code would be the last chance...

[baktra]

Sure, totally agree, TB source code took 31 years to get it...

We only can hope, that a good soul reads your post and publish it here, else anonymously via the wiki or github.

Of course, reverse engineering of the code would be the last chance...

Yeah... if the source exists (and it is likely it doesn't) then disassembling and reverse-engineering will be the only option. Unless one writes a cross-compiler. It might not necessarily be TBXL -> ASM, but can be TBXL->CC65, just exploiting CC65's runtime library. Floating point numbers would be a challenge - some new library functions would be needed for mathematical operations.

Edited July 21, 2017 by baktra