ALERT: If you are using this quicksort routine in Vision BASIC or any other compiler that defaults to positive (unsigned) integers. Under some data conditions the J variable will decrement to -1 and wrap around to 65535, causing the sort to fail. So if your compiler (or compiler options) use only unsigned integers, you must test J at line 135, for example. 135 if j>32767 then j=0:goto 150 140 if a(j)>d then dec j:goto 135 The Abacus compiler used in the video defines integers as signed integers, so the extra IF-THEN was not necessary.

The main thing that's being compared here is the speed of the line-drawing routines. You can actually see the individual lines being drawn in the Simons' and C128 versions, so those routines are very slow, despite being written in machine language. They probably use floating-point calculations, while Vision BASIC must use an integer method, like Bresenham's Algorithm.

Nice video! Been loving these comparison videos. It's amazing just how fast Vision Basic is. I hope more people check it out eventually.

It's a shame that there was never a SIMONS BASIC compiler available from the author of SIMONS BASIC, David Simons.* I had SB and played with it relentlessly as a teenager. * This points out a revelation I had years ago, that it is not named after a guy named Simon as a first name, but after a guy whose LAST name is Simons, therefore the apostrophe is not to be used.

Great video! These benchmaks are fun to watch and tell a lot. PS: Compiled Vision Basic programs can be run from Basic 2.0 :)

I guess the Simon' s Basic cartridge ROM is mapped over the original Basic ROM. The compiler might work if you dump the Simon' s ROM and load it to memory as well together with your compiled program. There are packers that allow you to compress and load the whole 64k memory at once, decompress it and jump to a specified address. Dunno if Simon' s Basic used any form of copy protection to avoid the Basic beeing ran standalone.

It was my understanding that those rudimentary compilers were simply removing extra "fluff" from the basic code so it isn't really converting it to machine language. That would be why the extension cartridge is still needed. And one of the claims of Vision Basic is that you *can* use the compiled programs on a stock 64, assuming it had enough memory as Vision Basic needs an REU to work.

Please ! More Vision Basic . I am particularly interested in what add-ons you might come up with for that language.

I was always trying to make better and faster games, so I made a few with Simon's BASIC (since the regular C-64 BASIC was so lacking). But Simon's BASIC is still slow. So I compiled what games I could, and it certainly helped. But I used Blitz!. There is at least one Simon's BASIC command that won't compile, but I don't remember what it was (and there could be other commands). But yes, you still needed the Simon's BASIC cartridge to run the compiled programs with. It was nice that you could at least compile the programs with Blitz!. I compiled pretty much everything with Blitz!, LOL. Simon's BASIC was certainly an inspiration for my work.

I never knew you could compile Simon's Basic with Abacus! Does it work with CBM's Basic Extender? Is that basic 4.0? Abacus compiler made my old C64 games playable by speeding them up 2x! If I only had that back in the 1980s !! You final comparison is a little confusing. 42 seconds compiled C64 Simon basic runs at 42 sec versus C64 interpeted at 74 seconds. Its still an improvement. Generally, I've seen 2-3x speed ups with Abacus. BUT, what the eff is VISION BASIC? Geez is that crazy fast!!

I'm not at all surprised BASIC 7 on the C128 is a lot slower than BASIC 2 on the C64. Based on my own benchmarking, BASIC 2 on the C64 is quite a bit faster than BASIC 7 on the C128 @ 1 MHz. One reason is because BASIC 7 has to parse a lot more keyword tokens. Even when the C128 is in C64 mode running BASIC 2, it is about 7% slower than BASIC 2 running on the C64, so there is something using up CPU cycles on the C128. If you want BASIC 7 to be faster than the C64, you have to run it at 2 MHz.

BASIC 4.0 is the version of Commodore BASIC used on the later PETs and on the CBM-II computers. It was available for the VIC-20 and C64.

It looks like the compiler only bothers with the BASIC code part, and just uses the ROM- or extension-provided routines to call to when executing the compiled statements. It still makes you wonder why the compiled version is so much larger on disk. When compiled to true machine code with no additional runtime, it should be even smaller than the original BASIC source.

Impressive! I had Simons' BASIC back then and I loved it. Now I have Vision BASIC, I didn't know it was wickedly fast! Can you share the files that you used in the video?

Is it possible to put the extended basic rom inside the computer?

I had "Simons Basic" and felt very alone. It is such a pity that C64 basic was so lame, having no dedicated commands for graphics (e.g. SETDOT and GETDOT), sprites or sound. Commodore should have offered Simons Basic as a free option with the Disk Drive and a cheap upgrade. That way, much more would actually program instead of just waste their time gaming.

Technically you can sell a program to anyone who doesn't have that utility. You don't even have to lie to them to do so.

Scan-lines PLEASE!

How long does it take to compile each version?