AmigaBASIC running the "Demo" program

AmigaBASIC was a BASIC programming language implementation for the Amiga, designed and written by Microsoft. In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer AmigaBASIC shipped with AmigaOS versions 1. AmigaOS is the default native Operating system of the Amiga personal computer 1 to 1. 3. It succeeded ABasiC, which was included in AmigaOS 1. 0 and 1. 1, and it was replaced with ARexx, a REXX-style scripting language, from AmigaOS version 2. ARexx is an implementation of the REXX language for the Amiga, written in 1987 by William S REXX (REstructured eXtended eXecutor is an interpreted Programming language which was developed at IBM. 0 onwards.

AmigaBASIC provided not only the common BASIC language, but also attempted to provide an easy-to-use API for the Amiga's unique graphics and sound capabilities. OBJECT commands, for example, made it easy to create moving objects - sprites and bobs that could be drawn with an external drawing program, Object editor, that was supplied with AmigaBASIC.

Compute!, a popular computer magazine published while AmigaBASIC was still being shipped, included many AmigaBASIC programs in their articles. COMPUTE! ( was an American Computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994 though it can trace its origin to 1978 in Len Lindsay's PET Compute! readers could type the source code into the AmigaBASIC editor to add new software to their Amiga. The source code listings were typically implementations of simple programs, such as rudimentary games, analog clocks and address books.

Many of today's successful computer programmers got their start on AmigaBASIC, including a few that work at Valve Software, the company that makes the Half-Life series of games.

Hello World in AmigaBASIC

' Hello World for AmigaBASIC
PRINT "Hello, world!"

You can go one better by adding the following line:

SAY TRANSLATE$ ("HELLO WORLD")

The Amiga will then actually say "Hello, world. " in addition to displaying it on screen.

Other BASIC languages for AmigaOS

• ACE was a BASIC compiler, written by David Been, that was designed to work with the AmigaBASIC language. The compiler produced Motorola 68000 assembly language which could be assembled and linked into native Amiga executables. The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor See the terminology section below for information regarding inconsistent use of the terms assembly and assembler The primary benefits were performance, lower run-time memory requirements, the ability to execute software without AmigaBASIC, and the ability to distribute software without having to release the actual source code. ACE also provided additional APIs to expand the capability of the AmigaBASIC language.
• A/C Basic by Absoft was a compiler for AmigaBASIC programs that turned them into native executables that could be run without AmigaBASIC or the program's source code being present.
• Cursor was another AmigaBASIC editor and compiler.
• GFA BASIC, originally developed for the Atari ST, was ported to the Amiga platform by its author, Frank Ostrowski. GFA BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC Programming language, by Frank Ostrowski. The Atari ST is a home / Personal computer that was commercially available from 1985 to the early 1990s Frank Ostrowski is a German programmer
• HiSoft BASIC was another BASIC variant ported from the Atari ST to the Amiga.
• AMOS BASIC, developed by François Lionet, was a commercial language which provided extensive support for the Amiga's graphics hardware and was designed primarily for games programming. AMOS BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC Programming language implemented on the Amiga computer François Lionet is a French programmer best known for having written AMOS BASIC on the Amiga and STOS BASIC on the Atari ST (along It was used to write several commercial games and educational software.
• Blitz BASIC was a direct commercial competitor to AMOS, published by Acid Software. Blitz BASIC is a Compiler for the BASIC programming language. Like AMOS, it was targeted at games programming. Its successor, Blitz Basic 2, was used to write several commercial games, including the popular Team17 game Worms. Team17 Software is a Video game company which grew from 17Bit Software an Amiga PD/Demo user-group in the late 1980s Worms was the first in the series of Artillery games developed by Team17 and released in.

Example AmigaBASIC code

• COMPUTE!, August 1987, pg 89 Fractal Mountains For Amiga Source code listing of a fractal mountain generator.
• COMPUTE!, October 1987, pg 71 A Button Command Source code listing for enhanced buttons, such as radio-style buttons.
• COMPUTE!, November 1987, pg 86 Masked Input For The Amiga Source code listing for a masked text input box.