Re: [9fans] memory stick

[Ralph Corderoy <ralph@inputplus.co.uk>]

Hi,

> i never did anything but the most redimentary programming on the 380Z
> though: BBC B's were the thing.  it still amazes me how fast BBC basic
> was, especially when i recall it used 32-bits (floating point by
> default!)  for all its arithmetic.

IIRC, an unadorned variable, e.g. `foo' was a float stored in a non-IEEE
five-byte format.  `foo%' was a 32-bit integer.  `foo$' was a string
with maximum length of 255 bytes.

It was fast, and the best BASIC around at the time.  Largely due to the
skill of its creator, Sophie Wilson.  http://www.sophie.org.uk/  She
later went on to design the ARM chip's instruction set, ARM originally
standing for Acorn RISC Machine.  BBC BASIC written in assembly for the
ARM by Sophie has traditionally been a very good torture test for ARM
instruction set emulators because of its author's in-depth knowledge.

Another reason it was the best BASIC was it had 16K of ROM space all to
itself thanks to the BBC's `sideway ROM' feature which allowed 16K for
the OS, another 16K for the BASIC interpreter, 16K for the floppy disc
filing system, etc.  Each being paged in at the same address in memory
as required.  Most other home computers had, say, 16K for the
OS+BASIC+everything else.

Cheers,

--
Ralph Corderoy.      http://inputplus.co.uk/ralph/     http://troff.org/