Simons' basic

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Simons' BASIC module
Start screen of Simons'-BASIC

Simons' Basic is an extension of Commodore Basic V2 -Befehlsatzes for the Commodore 64 - Home computer . The extension was written in 1983 by the then 16-year-old British programmer David Simons and distributed by the Commodore company in a cartridge or on a floppy disk . The spelling “Simon's BASIC”, which is often found, is incorrect.

Simons' BASIC provides 114 additional commands. These are mainly commands that simplify the programming of sprites , high-resolution graphics, multicolor graphics and sound. In addition, there are commands that support structured programming , such as the ELSE clause for IF ... THEN, named jump destinations, and the option of using local variables in subroutines. In addition to very useful commands, this extension contains some that were already rather curious when it was released, such as the option to let the screen frame flash at 255 different speeds.

Since this BASIC extension appeared very soon after the debut of the C64, was very powerful and was marketed by Commodore itself, it spread more widely than all other BASIC extensions for the C64. Simons' BASIC was therefore the only extended BASIC for which a significant number of listings appeared to be typed in computer magazines. Even a few commercial programs require Simons' BASIC.

Because part of the program code in the plug-in module occupies the address space $ 8000– $ 9FFF, in which part of the memory for BASIC programs is located during normal operation of the C-64, the memory space for BASIC programs on the computer is converted when this module is used 8 KB smaller than in normal operation - instead of 38 KB, only 30 KB are available for user programs and their variables. A reprogrammed variant of Simon's Basic, which was optimized in terms of memory space requirements and supplemented by a few commands, was also used to a certain extent Designation "Commander BASIC" was put into circulation. Compared to the variant "EVT935", "Commander BASIC EVT956" did not contain any additional commands, but used the memory area from $ C000- $ CFFF for part of its machine code, thus leaving more of the scarce BASIC memory area free.

Others

The band Barcelona called their 1999 debut album "Simon Basic" as a kind of tribute. The album also contains the song "C-64".

literature

  • Jürgen Daust: C-64 (COMMODORE 64), structured programming with SIMONS - BASIC . Hüthig, 1986, ISBN 3778510703 .
  • Axel Plenge, Norbert Szczepanowski: The training book for SIMON's BASIC . DATA Becker, 1986, ISBN 3890110096 .
  • Norbert Treitz: Games with computer graphics for imagination and logic . Hagemann Verlag, ISBN 3-544-53003-1 . (contains 111 small graphics programs for Simons' Basic)

Web links