Locomotive BASIC

CPC Start Screen showing Locomotive copyright and BASIC version

Locomotive BASIC was a BASIC interpreter for the Amstrad CPC range of computers.

Description

Locomotive BASIC, was one of the best and fastest BASIC implementations of the era. The language benefited both from a clean, well-thought out implementation of the core language by Locomotive, and by the excellent firmware of the CPC, which lent most of its advanced features to the BASIC.

Unlike the competing Commodore 64, it featured a comprehensive graphic capabilities with its PLOT, DRAW, PAPER, INK, PEN, BORDER and (in BASIC 1.1) FILL commands. It had extensive sound commands, granting control of the AY-3-8912 via the firmware's volume and tone envelope system. With the SOUND command, you could select channels, set envelopes, pitch, noise and volume. That was something unmatched by other computers of that era.

Also there was simple interface for memory management, with MEMORY and LOAD commands. The latter allowed for loading of raw screen data, thus providing easy picture showing. Both through this (combined with CALL, PEEK and POKE) and the firmware's RSX system, it was easy to mix BASIC and assembly code, thereby speeding up programs by coding the slowest parts directly in machine code. Many successful programs, including games such as Radzone and applications such as PowerPage, made use of this technique.

With DEF FN, ON variable GOTO and ON variable GOSUB, Locomotive BASIC provided the rudiments of "structured programming", though nowhere near the extent of the PROCedures of BBC BASIC.

All in all, if you compare BASIC interpreters of that era, the Locomotive's seems to be the best 'all-rounder' regarding the combination of speed and complexity, and still some of its features were unmatched by others.

History

The CPC implementation of Locomotive BASIC was developed directly from Locomotive Software's existing Z80 BASIC. The existence of this is cited as one of the reasons Locomotive requested that Amstrad change the CPC's processor from a 6502 to a Z80.

The 464 shipped with BASIC 1.0 on ROM.

The language was revised and debugged for the 664, 6128 and Plus machines to become BASIC 1.1. Changes were minor but significant for the programmer, and included:

• DEC$ bug removed (in BASIC 1.0, it required two opening brackets and was undocumented)
• Better handling of string arguments to RSXs (|DIR,"*.BAS" rather than a$="*.BAS":|DIR,@a$)
• FILL command (fill area with solid colour)
• COPYCHR$ function (fetch character from screen)
• Better garbage collection
• Some number-handling bugs removed (e.g. in FOR loops with negative start/end values)
• FRAME (CALL &BD19)
• Extra, optional 'plotting mode' parameter for DRAW/PLOT commands (supported only through control codes on BASIC 1.0)
• GRAPHICS PAPER, GRAPHICS PEN commands
• ON BREAK CONT (disable ESCape)
• CLEAR INPUT (flush keyboard buffer)

Some parts of 'BASIC' were actually housed in the firmware ROM, but were not officially accessible to other programs. This included the line editor.

The 'pure BASIC' parts of Locomotive BASIC - i.e. those not concerned with CPC-specific firmware and hardware features - were upgraded to become Mallard BASIC, the CP/M language shipped with the PCW. This also featured exceptionally advanced random-access file handling, a feature missing from the CPC.

Command list

Commands and operators

AFTER I[,t] GOSUB Ln

Waits for i/50 seconds and then jumps to the subruotine at line Ln.

AUTO [Ln, i]

Automaticaly generates line numbers starting at line Ln with increment i between line numbers.

Use [ESC to leave AUTO mode. Default value for Ln and i is 10.

Example:

AUTO 100,5 - generates line numbers 100, 105, 110...

BORDER

[...]

CALL add[,list of parameters]

Allows an externally developed subroutine to be called by BASIC

Example:

CALL 0 - resets the computer completely

CAT

Displays the names of all existing programes on the tape or disk.

Examples:

CAT [ENTER] - lists all disk files in alpha-numeric order

TAPE [ENTER]

CAT [ENTER] - lists names of all tape files in their storage order

CHAIN

[...]

CHAIN MERGE

[...]

CLEAR

Clears all variables from memory, leaving the program in memory unchanged. All open files are abandoned.

CLG [ink]

Clears the graphics screen to colour specified by ink. If parameter ink is not specified them the graphics screen is cleared to the colour specified by the GRAPHICS PAPER statement.

CLOSEIN

[...]

CLOSEOUT

[...]

CLS

[...]

CONT

[...]

CURSOR

[...]

DATA

[...]

DEF

[...]

DEFINT

[...]

DEFREAL

[...]

DEFSTR

[...]

DEG

[...]

DELETE

[...]

DI

Disables interrupts (but not[ESC]) until re-enabled by EI command or by RETURN at end of an interrupts service routine.

DIM

[...]

DRAW x,y [,[i1][,i2]]

Draws a line from the current cursor position to position x,y. i1 specifies colour, i2 is the logical colour.

i2 = 0   normal colour   i2 = 2 AND colour
i2 = 1   XOR colour      i2 = 3 OR colour

Example:

CLG 2

DRAW 500,400,0 - draws a line from 0,0 to 500,400

DRAWR xr, y2, [[i1][,i2]]

Draws a line from current graphics cursor position to current cursor x position + xr, current cursor y position + yr. i1 and i2 as DRAW.

Example:

Move 200,200

DRAWR 100,100,0 - draws a line from 200,200 to 300,300

EDIT

[...]

EI

Enable interrupts which have been disabled by DI

END

Indicates end of program

ENT

[...]

ENV

[...]

ERASE v[$(i1[,i2])

Clears the contents of an array that is no longer required.

ERL

[...]

ERROR i

Returns the error message whose error code number is i.

EVERY

[...]

FILL i

Fills an area of a graphics screen i colour i (0-15). Default value of i is the current graphics pen colour. Only available in Basic 1.1.

FN

[...]

FOR TO STEP NEXT

[...]

FRAME

Smooths character and graphics movement and reduces flicker (waits for a VSYNC signal). Only available in Basic 1.1. On a CPC 464 you can use CALL &BD19 instead.

GOSUB i

Jumps to subroutine which is given as argument.

Example:

10 PRINT "Calling subroutine"
20 GOSUB 100
30 PRINT "Back from subroutine"
40 END
100 REM Begin of the subroutine
110 PRINT "Subroutine started"
120 RETURN

GOTO i

Jumps to the line number which is given as argument.

Example:

10 GOTO 100
20 REM not executed
30 REM not executed
100 PRINT "Hello World!"

GRAPHICS

[...]

IF THEN ELSE

[...]

INK

[...]

INPUT

[...]

KEY

[...]

LET

[...]

LINE

[...]

LIST

[...]

LOAD

[...]

LOCATE

[...]

MASK

[...]

MEMORY

[...]

MERGE

[...]

MID$

[...]

MODE

[...]

MOVE

[...]

MOVER

[...]

NEW

[...]

ON BREAK

[...]

ON ERROR

[...]

OPENIN

[...]

OPENOUT

[...]

ORIGIN

[...]

OUT

[...]

PAPER

[...]

PEN

[...]

PLOT

[...]

PLOTR

[...]

POKE

[...]

PRINT

[...]

RAD

[...]

RANDOMIZE

[...]

READ

[...]

RELEASE

[...]

REM

[...]

REM

[...]

RENUM

[...]

RESTORE

[...]

RESUME

[...]

RETURN

[...]

RUN

[...]

SAVE

[...]

SOUND

[...]

SPC

[...]

SPEED

[...]

SQ

[...]

STOP

[...]

SUB

[...]

SWAP

[...]

SYMBOL

[...]

TAB

[...]

TAG

[...]

TAGOFF

[...]

TROFF

[...]

TRON

[...]

USING

[...]

WAIT

[...]

WHILE WEND

[...]

WIDTH

[...]

WINDOW

[...]

WRITE

[...]

ZONE

[...]

Operators

AND

[...]

MOD

[...]

NOT

[...]

OR

[...]

XOR

[...]

Functions

ABS

[...]

ASC

[...]

ATN

[...]

BIN$

[...]

CHR$

[...]

CINT

[...]

COPYCHR$

[...]

COS

[...]

CREAL

[...]

DEC$

[...]

DERR

[...]

EOF

[...]

ERR

[...]

EXP

[...]

FIX

[...]

FRE

[...]

HEX$

[...]

HIMEM

[...]

INKEY

[...]

INKEY$

[...]

INP

[...]

INSTR

[...]

INT

[...]

JOY

[...]

LEFT$

[...]

LEN

[...]

LOG

[...]

LOG10

[...]

LOWER$

[...]

MAX

[...]

MIN

[...]

PEEK

[...]

PI

[...]

POS

[...]

REMAIN

[...]

RIGHT$

[...]

RND

[...]

ROUND

[...]

SGN

[...]

SIN

[...]

SPACE$

[...]

SQ

[...]

SQR

[...]

STR$

[...]

STRING$

[...]

TAN

[...]

TEST

[...]

TESTR

[...]

TIME

[...]

UNT

[...]

UPPER$

[...]

VAL

[...]

VPOS

[...]

XPOS

[...]

YPOS

[...]

(Please, fill in. Looks like a lot of work ;-) ...)

Other Basic Dialects avaliable for the CPC

BBC Basic

Web links

• Technical information at the Unofficial Amstrad WWW Resource
• Locomotive Basic Tutorial by Sean McManus