The Basic Extensions ROM has been on sale for about six months now, and my first impression on receiving it was one of delight.

The ROM enhances the number of direct mode commands, and also adds more instructions to Basic (instructions that can be used without using the command line interpreter). It is supplied with a 44 page A5 booklet to tell you all about the 39 new commands .

Some direct mode commands that are provided include: CONT to continue a program's execution after an error, DTOB and BTOD which convert binary to decimal and vice versa, SECURE which 'locks' your machine until the correct password is typed, and VIEW which lists a file from tape or disc without harming the program in memory.

Some of the Basic language enhancements include CASE-ENDCASE, WHILE-ENDWHILE, WHEN, ENDLOOP, ENDEXIT, ENDIF and EXITIF for structured programming perfectionists, FPOP and GPOP to remove the last FOR-NEXT/RETURN address off the stack, while SETTEXT, SETCOLOUR and SETGRAPHICS are all to do with setting up windows and colours.

The operation of these new features is somewhat annoying as some of the abbreviated keywords take over from original Basic commands, which can cause frustration. Also, upon running a Micro Power games disc, we found that the software would not run properly, if at all, and had to disable the ROM beforehand.

Overall, the Basic Extensions package is worth having if you want the enhanced structured programming features, with the added bonus of various other commands for program development. The ROM is a good idea that offers some nice features, but would have benefitted from more time in the original design and planning. As it is, you will need to decide how important these extensions are for you.

BTOD
CHANGE
COMPACT
CONT
DTOB
DUMP
FIND
JOIN
MERGE
REPLACE
SHIFT
STATUS
SECURE

VIEW
VERIFY
WILDCARD
CASE
ENDCASE
ENDWHILE
ENDLOOP
ENDEXIT
ENDIF
EXITIF
ELSEIF
FPOP
FIP

GPOP
KILL
LOOP
LPRINT
MEMSHIFT
OTHERWISE
ORIGIN
RUN
SETCOLOUR
SETTEXT
SETGRAPHIC
WHILE
WHEN

Basic Extensions