Category:QL SuperBASIC
This programming language may be used to instruct a computer to perform a task.
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This is a stub about the interpreted language by Sinclair Research (and unrelated to the compiled SUPER BASIC, aka SBASIC, by Tymshare, while directly related to the compiled SBasic for later QL derivative environments).
SuperBASIC is an advanced variant of the BASIC programming language with many structured programming additions. It was developed at Sinclair Research by Jan Jones during the early 1980s. Originally SuperBASIC was intended for a home computer, code-named SuperSpectrum, then under development. This project was later cancelled; however, SuperBASIC was subsequently included in the ROM firmware of the Sinclair QL microcomputer (announced in January 1984), also serving as the command line interpreter for the QL's Qdos operating system. It is notable for being the first second-generation BASIC to be integrated into a microcomputer's operating system, so making the latter user-extendable—as exemplified by Linus Torvalds in his formative years.
While providing integer variables, lacking on the Spectrum as well as the ZX81, SuperBASIC limits their range to that found on the ZX80, rather than making full use of the 68008's 32-bit data registers. Thus, it can only take the DIV and MOD of a whole number that is within [-\+)2^15. And while an advancement over ZX Spectrum BASIC, it nonetheless falls short in floating point precision: 4294967295 (2^32-1) - 4.294E9 yields the correct result on a Spectrum, but is 967296 on a QL. Furthermore, 2^31+1 - 2.147E9 yields 483650, also one too much.
Pages in category "QL SuperBASIC"
The following 4 pages are in this category, out of 4 total.