Atari ST BASIC - The Use of ST BASIC

The Use of ST BASIC

As it came standard with many early STs for several years, it rapidly became the standard BASIC for the ST. If a computer magazine was to publish some code, or if someone was to distribute a BASIC file, then using ST BASIC would maximise the number of people who could run the program.

However, many people found it inadequate for their needs. Although many people who had just upgraded from an 8-bit home computer found it to be faster than the BASIC for their old computer, and were impressed with the ST's graphical abilities, and the ability to have the program's output display in a different window than the program-listing, they soon realised that not only did it contain several bugs, but that once other BASICs started to come out on the ST, they realised just how slow ST BASIC was, and that the use of GEM was more of a hindrance once the novelty wore off (the fact that GEM on the ST was limited to four windows and that the ST BASIC interface already used four windows did not help).