Business basic

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Business BASIC is a programming language belonging to the BASIC family . This is a pure interpreter language. This means that no compilation run had to be carried out after the programs were coded. The instructions entered were executed line by line by an interpreter. For the programmer, this meant that lines entered were immediately checked by the interpreter. If the instruction was incorrect, the interpreter rejected the entry with a corresponding comment.

history

In 1975 the Paderborn company Nixdorf developed the magnetic disk system 8870/1, which belonged to the so-called " medium data technology " area. This system could be connected to several terminals . Applications were programmed in Business Basic.

One of the best-known applications was the COMET commercial application , which is still in use today. COMET was extremely successful in the 1970s and 1980s and was used in around 200 industries.

functionality

In Business Basic, variable names were only allowed as simple letters with a number, e.g. B. K1 $ for a string field (text field) or, for example, P1 as a numeric field. The size of an alphanumeric field depended on the size of the disk partition. At the end of the string there was still a so-called boundary character (ASCII hexadecimal 00), which marked the end of the string. Numeric fields were available as simple variables or as so-called vectors (arrays). These were multi-dimensional fields with several elements. For example, A (9) was a vector with 10 elements (A (0) to A (9)). A vector B (3.9) was a vector with 4 × 10 elements: B (0.0) ... B (0.9), B (1.0) ... B (1.9), B (2.0 ) ... B (2.9) and B (3.0) ... B (3.9). The following types could be dimensioned:

  • 1%, 2 bytes in size, maximum display of 4 characters, maximum value of ± 7,999.
  • 2%, 4 bytes in size, maximum display of 6 characters, maximum value of ± 0.999999E + 63.
  • 3%, 6 bytes in size, maximum display of 10 characters, maximum value of ± 0.9999999999E + 63.
  • 4%, 8 bytes in size, maximum display of 14 characters, maximum value of ± 0.99999999999999E + 63.

By the standards of the time, Business Basic was an easy-to-learn and powerful programming language. This basic was supported by machine programs that were called by the CALL command and made countless convenient functions available. This basic was later converted to the cross-basic, for example. a. to run on Siemens MX and RM computers. For the Windows world, the NetBasic is still available today as a 16- and a 32-bit version.

For operation under SCO Unix , Linux and Solaris , a version derived from Business Basic called “UniBasic” is still distributed today. The interface is still ASCII-oriented - some "modern" features such as windows, databases, etc. are now supported. Under the name “DL-4” there is a version based on UniBasic / Business Basic that can also run under Windows.

For Siemens Nixdorf systems (SNI) MX and RM systems on which the UNIX derivative SINIX ran, there was Crossbasic, which is no longer maintained today.

Short list of instructions

Instruction description
BUILD # Creation of magnetic disk files (relative text files, no index files, see BUILDXF )
BUILDXF Basic program, not an instruction. Creates an index file after entering the appropriate parameters with the help of BUILD # and SEARCH # statements
CALL Calling machine code subroutines (in Unibasic also from your own macros (written in Unibasic))
CHAIN Calling up another basic program (without transferring values, see also LINK )
CLEAR Deletes variable values
CLOSE # Closing data channels (see OPEN # )
DIM Dimensioning of variables (provision of storage space)
GOSUB Calling a subroutine (line number or label (only in Unibasic or DL4))
GOTO unconditional jump to a program line (line number or label (only in Unibasic or DL4))
LINK Call of another basic program (with value transfer, see also CHAIN )
OPEN # Open a data channel (magnetic disk file or device driver )
READ # Reading from magnetic disk files or device drivers
PRINT # Writing to files / output to printers
SEARCH # Editing key directories or searching in key directories in an index file
SYSTEM Calling a system command
WRITE # Writing to files

swell

  • Nixdorf 8870 Business-BASIC manual (as of June 1, 1985)

Web links