BBC BASIC for Windows 5.80a

BBC BASIC for Windows 5.80a offers you a powerful implementation of the BBC BASIC programming language for PCs running Microsoft Windows (Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP or Vista), giving the programmer with a familiar language but with a modern user interface. It combines the simplicity of BASIC with the sophistication of a structured language, allowing you to write utilities and games, use sound and graphics, perform calculations and create complete Windows applications.

The Graphical User Interface includes a BASIC program editor with syntax colouring, live indentation, search & replace and many other features. Built-in diagnostic aids such as run-time trace, listing of variables and single-step execution make debugging even the most complex programs straightforward. Line numbers are optional.

BBC BASIC for Windows uniquely incorporates an assembler which generates 32-bit code and accepts all 80486 instructions and some Pentium-specific instructions (except special-register and privileged instructions), including floating-point and MMX. You can access the Windows Application Program Interface both from BASIC and from assembler code, allowing an experienced programmer to produce sophisticated applications.

The full (paid for) version allows you to create a compact (typically less than 100K) stand-alone executable (.EXE) file from your BASIC program, which will run without BBC BASIC having to be installed and without the need for any special DLLs. You can distribute such executables freely without any royalty being due.

A free evaluation version is available. This is fully functional except that the amount of memory available for the user's program, data and stack is restricted to 8K bytes, and the Compile command is not available. You can download it from here.

BBC BASIC for Windows is the Copyright © 2001-2009 of R. T. Russell. It is supplied for use on one computer at a time only. Neither the program nor its accompanying documentation may be copied for simultaneous use by the purchaser nor for use by anyone other than the purchaser (however see above for exceptions related to the use of the manual in schools and colleges). Multi-user site licences are available, for example a 10-user licence costs £85, a 20-user licence costs £115 and a 50-user licence costs £180 (all excluding VAT). Contact us with your requirements for more details. 

Major Features:

1. Largely compatible with Version 5 of BBC BASIC resident in the Acorn Archimedes and Iyonix computers. It also retains a high degree of compatibility with the BBC Microcomputer, including emulation of the SOUND statement and the MODE 7 (teletext) screen mode.
2. Fully integrated with Windows™ and has many new and advanced features including data structures, PRIVATE variables, long strings, event interrupts, an address of operator, byte variables, a line continuation character, indirect procedure and function calls and improved numeric accuracy.
3. Costs only £29.35 including VAT (£25.52 plus VAT, or about US$ 50).
4. Normally supplied on CD-ROM and is delivered by First Class letter post. If you order online using PayPal, you will instead receive instructions on how to download the file (approximately 2 Mbytes).
5. Supplied with more than 50 example programs to illustrate what can be achieved and to give you a head start.

1. BASIC interpreter
   • 64-bit floating-point (double) constants may be specified in *FLOAT 40 mode by adding a # suffix, for example 1.23# or PI#.
   • The THEN keyword has been extended to aid conversion from other BASIC dialects (e.g. QBASIC).
2. VDU emulation
   • VDU 23,10,18 now sets the width of the text cursor (caret), as an alternative to @vdu%!252.
   • VDU 23,16 has been implemented to provide enhanced cursor movement control, e.g. support for right-to-left printing languages.
   • VDU 23,23 now sets the thickness of solid lines and outline shapes, as an alternative to @vdu%!248.
3. Operating System interface
   • Enhanced support for console mode programs has been provided by means of *INPUT 13 and *OUTPUT 14.
   • *OUTPUT 15 now allows output to be redirected to the printer, for example making it easier to emulate LPRINT.
   • High-numbered input/output devices (e.g. COM10: upwards) may now be accessed directly.
4. Compatibility considerations: The place at which text output in VDU 5 mode 'wraps' from one line to the next may be different from earlier versions. If this is a problem you can probably compensate for it by using the new cursor movement control facility.

Requirements: Microsoft Windows (Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP or Vista)