YS MegaBasic is the product of Your Spectrum Software and Mike Leaman. This program constitutes a most interesting approach to some of the limitations of Sinclair Basic and augments it with 35 new commands plus three type fonts and four print sizes (one of which is a 64 column mode). Add window capability (as many as 10), sprites, simple multitasking, enhanced sound, named procedure operation, a monitor for examination of the Z80 registers, trace function for debugging and a bit more.
To completely describe MegaBasic would require considerable type, as this is almost a new Basic in itself. Rather than that, let me describe some of the things that haven’t been mentioned in the ad for it.
As received, MegaBasic 1.0 comes complete with a couple of major bugs. However, a listing of a bug fix is included which upgrades you to version 3.0. Version 1.0 is a rough diamond. Version 3.0 is a real gem. It is a bit disconcerting to have to patch new software when you receive it but this one is worth it. The patch is 350+ bytes of code and as far as I can tell everything works. Hopefully, version 3.0 is the published version at this date. MegaBasic leaves about 21K free for your programs.
This may seem a bit restrictive to some, but when you consider the facility of the extension you will find that less program is required to accomplish a lot of things.
Named procedures give MegaBasic a very un-Basic character. This feature will give you the chance to explore the possibility of a structured program ap- proach. The procedure stack allows nesting of up to ten procedures. This is easy to use as well as useful.
One of the things that you will notice is that the familiar one key entry of keywords is gone. A bit of a shock, but I think that I’ll live through it. There ARE abbreviations for most keywords. Also Sinclair Basic is a subset of MegaBasic so you aren’t going completely from scratch.
Documentation is the in form of a small 32 page booklet which at first seems short but does cover it all. It could use a command index and a bit more of examples of how some of the commands work but all in all documentation is adequate. All in all, I’d score MegaBasic a 10 in the 3.0 version.
You can get it from: The English Micro Connection, 15 Kilburn Ct, Newport, Rhode Island, 02840. The cost is $12.95 plus $1 for P&H. Well worth the money.