Omikron BASIC

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Omikron BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language that was developed in the mid-1980s by Omikron.Soft + Hardware GmbH for the ATARI ST , STE and TT. From 1988 the Omikron Basic Interpreter including the manual was part of the basic equipment of all ST computers delivered in Germany. Omikron BASIC was characterized above all by its mathematical abilities including 19-digit calculation accuracy as well as by a new interpreter concept that enabled a computing speed that was high for the time: - ten times faster than Atari BASIC, often about twice as fast as GFA-BASIC .

properties

The editor and interpreter (version 3.0) was licensed by Atari soon after the release of the MEGA-ST series and was supplied as standard instead of the unstable and unfinished Atari ST BASIC . You could buy the compiler later. This allowed optionally compiled programs to be passed on without the user being able to see the source code .

Compiled programs could use the coprocessors and lock the abort key combination CTRL-C .

Omikron Basic 5 / Atari ST

With the further development of the ATARI series according to STE, TT and Falcon, due to incompatibilities between the computer models and imperfections in Omikron BASIC, adjustments to the software were repeatedly required, which forced the user to use the more or less expensive new versions of the compiler (3.5, 4.0 , 5.0) in order to remain compatible. The last version 5.0 finally ran “cleanly” on Atari emulators, e.g. B. MagicPC from ASH, so that you can continue to run your Atari programs in Omikron BASIC on your PC or Mac.

Almost all functionalities of the operating system were accessible and usable from Omikron BASIC, such as access to BIOS and the GEM graphical user interface .

Libraries

The orientation of the Omikron BASIC towards a more scientifically and technically interested target group can be seen among other things. a. at the extension libraries, which could also be purchased:

  • Statistics (distributions, confidence intervals, tests, multi-field tables)
  • Numerics (systems of equations, approximation, numerical integration, systems of differential equations)
  • Complex (computing with complex numbers)

However, there were also libraries for applications outside of engineering:

  • EasyGem (construction of the GUI)
  • MIDI (music)
  • SQL (library with its own database engine )

Later developments

With the concentration of ATARIs from home computers to game consoles , Omikron BASIC also quickly lost its importance in the 1990s.

Omikron BASIC was further developed and sold by Berkhan-Software (versions 5, 6, 7 and 8) until 2013, mainly for Apple Macintosh systems . A version for Intel Macs (up to Mac OS 10.6) was released in 2008 (8.5). Both the editor and the compiled programs work under Rosetta , since only PowerPC code is used or created. With Mac OS 10.7, Apple removed Rosetta.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ST magazine archive: 1988 . WEKA Medien Verlagsgesellschaft. 1988. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
  2. Berkhan software ( Memento of the original from September 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English German) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berkhan.com