From: Starting Up the Amstrad: Your First BASIC Commands
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From a software perspective, Amstrad's Locomotive BASIC is an interpreted language. This means the computer reads your code line-by-line while running it, rather than translating the whole program into computer code beforehand. This made it easy to write and change code, but it ran much slower than professional software written in assembly code.

controversy

Supporting arguments

  • You can stop a program mid-run, change a line of code, and start it again.
  • It uses simple English words instead of raw binary numbers.
  • The slow speed made it harder to build fast-moving arcade action games.
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What else is in this exploration
3 evidence blocks3 visualizations2 insights9 media resources5 rabbit holes
evidence
The RUN command executes a saved sequence of numbered lines.
evidence
Amstrad BASIC was built directly into the computer's physical memory chip.
evidence
The PRINT command is the most basic way to output data in Amstrad BASIC.
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Starting Up the Amstrad: Your First BASIC Commands
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