Looking for 8080/Z80 BASIC

On 01/01/2012 01:53 PM, Tony Duell wrote: The COCO was an oddity as the 6809 was a machine that was closest to PDP11 and maybe second to the 68000. With that kind of design in the hardware I was not surprised then and now with the performance of the software. My pence on BASIC. I hate it. With that said I also use it. If there is a favorite it would be QB45/dos (yes it's for PC). Wrote a lot of process control software using it and it was nicely structured. However, the PX8 basic runs an amazing close second. It's the extended M$ basic common to CP/M running boxes. the upside is there is both interpreted and compiled versions. Test with interpreter, run as compiled. The next used is Cbasic. I found some aspects slow and awkward but useful. I've run all the versions of basic from MITS (M$) 4K, 8k and extended (12k) and have ROM 8K for the Netronics box. The last one I played with as it took a while to get it into a machine is LLL 8K. That Lawernce Livermore labs 8K basic and the code is public then and still. It was published in Interface Age I believe and also in their compendium of The Best of Interface Age (basic for just about every machine both tine and LLL). The only reason I can imagine the thread starting with a hunt for 8080/z80 basic is to have a language, any and that was one of the first and favorite. To that I suggest looking up TINY BASIC, there were several and they are not big. The advantage is most the source your could see and the IO interface to use it was often in the clear. A good place to start. If you want a non BASIC language find a copy of TinyC. NO it's not real C but good enough for small system stuff. My pence again.. Get a rom based machine level monitor and get away from the front panel toggles as that is slow and painful. If you are going to launch CP/M on the system you'll need it anyway. Oh, and once you have CP/M the available software list expands considerably and takes on all the great published and free foundation software. Foundation software in my mind are the tools like editors, assemblers, spreadsheets, Database, communications, and the all important games. Allison