Q. If you write a program using Simon's Basic, will it run on the C64 without the cartridge in place? Also, is there likely to be a compiler for the C64, and if so would you be able to compile a program using Simon's Basic.

S. L. Clarke
Louth, Lincs.

A. For a full review of Simon's Basic, see issue 25, but briefly: no program which uses the extra commands in Simon's Basic will run on the ordinary C64. However, Simon's Basic does include toolkit utilities such as AUTO, RENUMBER, etc which, while not affecting the program itself, make life easier for the programmer.

There are at least two compilers for the C64 already available, DTL Basic from Dataview in Colchester which comes on cassette, and Petspeed 64 which was produced by Oxford Computer Systems but is marketed by Commodore under its own label. This comes on disk. Neither will work with Simon's Basic programs.