Turbo-BASIC XL

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Turbo-BASIC XL

Version 1.5 startup screen
Original author(s)	Frank Ostrowski
Initial release	December 1985; 39 years ago (1985-12)
Written in	6502 assembly
Platform	Atari 8-bit

Turbo-BASIC XL is an enhanced version of the BASIC programming language for Atari 8-bit computers. It is a compatible superset of the Atari BASIC that shipped with the Atari 8-bit systems. Turbo-Basic XL was developed by Frank Ostrowski and published in the December 1985 issue of German computer magazine Happy Computer. A version for the 400/800 models was released shortly after as Frost Basic 1.4. Several modified versions working with different DOS systems have been released by other authors.

Turbo-Basic XL greatly improves execution over Atari BASIC. An Atari BASIC program loaded into Turbo-BASIC, with no changes made, would generally run about three times as fast. A Turbo-Basic XL compiler created binary executables, further speeding up program performance to about ten times faster than Atari BASIC. Turbo-Basic XL also includes an expanded editor, support for named procedures, WHILE...ENDWHILE and similar block constructs, and added access to the underlying hardware, which, among other things, allowed operation of attached floppy drives without exiting to DOS.

Ostrowski soon got a job with GFA Systemtechnik GmbH (at the time known as Integral Hydraulik) where he adapted Turbo-Basic XL into GFA BASIC for the Atari ST, which became one of the more popular BASICs on that platform.