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BASICODE was a computer project intended to create a unified standard for the
BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...
. BASIC was available on many popular
home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...
s, but there were countless variants that were mostly incompatible with each other. The project was initiated in 1980 by Hobbyscoop, a radio program of the Dutch broadcasting organisation
Nederlandse Omroep Stichting The (; NOS or rarely ; ) is one of the broadcasting organisations making up the Dutch public broadcasting system. It has a special statutory obligation to make news and sports programmes for the three Dutch public television channels and the ...
(NOS). The language implementations were architecture-specific utility applications that executed calls of
subroutines In computer programming, a function (also procedure, method, subroutine, routine, or subprogram) is a callable unit of software logic that has a well-defined interface and behavior and can be invoked multiple times. Callable units provide a p ...
for text and audio defined in the BASICODE language standard, adapted according to the abilities of the host computer system. These applications, called ''Bascoders'', also enabled the sharing of data and programs across different computer platforms by defining a data format for the
cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...
s that were regularly used as storage media in the 1980s.''Weet ik!'' October 1991, ‘Basiscode-3’ by Bob Munniksma A BASICODE program stored on cassette could be loaded and run on any computer supporting the language. BASICODE was often called "
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
for computers" for that reason.


BASICODE


The situation at the beginning of the 1980s

From the late 1970s to the late 1980s
home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...
s based on 8-bit processors were popular. Well-known models in the USA included the
TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer developed by American company Tandy Corporation and sold through their Radio Shack stores. Launched in 1977, it is ...
, the PET 2001,
VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit entry level home computer that was sold by Commodore International, Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commod ...
,
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...
, and the
Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...
. In Europe, there were also the
ZX80 The Sinclair ZX80 is a home computer launched on 29 January 1980 by Science of Cambridge Ltd. (later to be better known as Sinclair Research). It is notable for being one of the first computers available in the United Kingdom for less than a hu ...
,
ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-c ...
,
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...
, Acorn/BBC micros, several Amstrad systems, Dragon 32/64 from Dragon Data and the KC85 family popular in the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
. All these computers had a
CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...
of the
MOS Technology 6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor that was desi ...
or
Zilog Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be Backward compatibility, software-compatible with the ...
, or a variant thereof. Most were supplied with (or could be upgraded to) at least 16
kilobyte The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for Computer data storage, digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix ''kilo-, kilo'' as a multiplication factor of 1000 (103); therefore, one kilobyte is 1000&nbs ...
of
RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...
although many were supplied with much more. Most would provide connectors for a cassette drive or have one built-in for data storage, and a
BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
interpreter Interpreting is translation from a spoken or signed language into another language, usually in real time to facilitate live communication. It is distinguished from the translation of a written text, which can be more deliberative and make use o ...
that was generally stored in
ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...
. The flat learning curve of BASIC, which had been designed with newcomers to programming in mind, and the instant availability of the language on all these computers led to many users writing and sharing their own programs. A problem was that sharing programs and data across computers by different manufacturers was difficult, because the various BASIC dialects were often incompatible in some areas. Many used different BASIC commands to achieve the same result (such as clearing the screen, drawing a pixel or playing a sound), meaning that for example, a BASIC program written for the C64 was unlikely to work on an Atari XL without modification and vice versa. Another difficulty was the fact that while these computers were similar, they still differed in key hardware aspects like screen resolution, available color palette or audio abilities. Finally, the data formats used for storing data on cassette were incompatible as well.


The first standard

In 1979 the Dutch broadcaster NOS began transmitting computer programs by radio. Because programs and data were stored as audio on compact cassettes, it was possible to record such a broadcast on tape and load it into the computer later. However, because of the problems mentioned earlier, the program also had to be adapted for a variety of popular computers and broadcast multiple times. Because the compact cassette has a very low data density compared to today's storage media, the recording of the programs took quite a long time, and only a limited number of programs could be broadcast per show. So, the additional broadcasting of different versions of the same programs was a great inconvenience. In 1982 the executives at NOS decided to develop a unified data format. An application that was specific for each computer model, called ''Bascoder'', managed the recall and storage of programs and data in this unified format from tape. The Bascoders were broadcast by NOS as well, but could also be bought from NOS on cassette and shared among friends and acquaintances. The format, which was very well-protected against interference, could be read and written by many popular home computer systems. The robustness of the format also made broadcasting via
mediumwave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting, AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. Duri ...
radio possible, which increased the range and in turn the number of potential users. For example, data broadcast by the Dutch radio station Hilversum could be received in large parts of the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
.


BASICODE 2

The standard solved one of the aforementioned problems, the incompatible data formats. However, programs still had to be adapted to each computer's BASIC dialect and hardware capabilities. Limiting the programs to only use instructions common across all dialects meant big limitations in terms of functionality, for example completely refraining from using graphics and sound whilst limiting functionality for data input using the keyboard and character output on the screen. For these reasons, in 1983 the enhanced standard BASICODE 2 was created. Bascoders using this standard did not only contain routines for input and output of data to tape. In addition to a set of about 50 BASIC commands, functions and operators that were common across all BASIC dialects, the language standard of BASICODE 2 defined a library of subroutines that emulated the same capabilities across all supported computers. To achieve this, all program lines below 1000 were reserved for the Bascoder, and BASICODE programs could only start at line number 1000. The subroutines of the Bascoder in the lines below 1000 were called with a
GOSUB Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
command. Necessary arguments were passed to the Bascoder by using special predefined variables that were reserved for use by the Bascoder. The standard contained a number of additional rules that were made necessary by the limitations of some computer models. For example, on a KC series computer, a line of code could not be longer than 60 characters. These limitations had to be enforced for all BASICODE programs to guarantee platform independence, because the Bascoder was interpreted by the same computer specific BASIC interpreter as the BASICODE program itself. Thus, the Bascoders were loaded on the various computers like normal programs, and when run, they provided the additional routines for the common standard and cassette I/O. Programs written in BASICODE were only usable after the Bascoder had been loaded and started. However, on some computers the BASICODE programs could be merged with the routines of the Bascoders and saved in the native data format. The resulting program was not platform independent any longer, but due to the higher data density of most native formats it could be loaded much faster than the same program in BASICODE format. Also, because it was not necessary to load the complete Bascoder to run the program, more RAM remained available at run time. There were BASICODE 2 Bascoders for the
Exidy Sorcerer The Sorcerer is a home computer system released in 1978 by the video game company Exidy, of Sunnyvale, California, and later marketed as a small business computer system under their Exidy Systems subsidiary. Based on the Zilog Z80 and the general ...
,
Colour Genie The EACA EG2000 Colour Genie was a computer produced by Hong Kong–based manufacturer EACA, and introduced in Germany in August 1982 by ''Trommeschläger Computer Service'' and ''Schmidtke Electronic''. It followed their earlier Video Genie I an ...
,
PET A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive/ cute appearances, inte ...
,
VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit entry level home computer that was sold by Commodore International, Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commod ...
,
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...
,
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
,
ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-c ...
,
ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...
,
Sinclair QL The Sinclair QL (for ''Quantum Leap'') is a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as an upper-end counterpart to the ZX Spectrum. The QL was the last desktop microcomputer from Sinclair Research aimed at the serious home use ...
,
Acorn Atom The Acorn Atom is a home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd from 1980 to 1982, when it was replaced by the BBC Micro. The BBC Micro began life as an upgrade to the Atom, originally known as the Proton. The Atom was a progression of the MOS T ...
,
BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...
,
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,
TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer developed by American company Tandy Corporation and sold through their Radio Shack stores. Launched in 1977, it is ...
,
MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...
,
Oric Atmos Oric was a brand of home computers sold in the 1980s by Tangerine Computer Systems. Tangerine was based in the United Kingdom and sold their computers primarily in Europe. All computers in the Oric line were based on the MOS Technology 650 ...
, P2000T, Grundy NewBrain,
Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...
,
IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...
,
Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...
, TI-99/4A, Mattel Aquarius, Aquarius and others. Additionally, advanced users were able to write their own Bascoder for their system of choice, since the language standard and data format were open and well-documented. The BASICODE 2 standard made the development of platform independent programs with advanced capabilities (for the time) possible. In addition, BASICODE was used to transmit and share information like computer scene news via radio, in the form of so-called "journals". Similarly, BASICODE coding tutorials and other documentation could also be transmitted this way.


BASICODE 3 / 3C

In 1986, the new BASICODE 3 standard was developed. The most important additions were routines for simple
monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...
graphics, reading and writing data from within programs and sound output. A booklet was published about the language, which came with a cassette containing Bascoders for various microcomputers. BASICODE 3 made BASICODE popular in the computer scene of the GDR, and from 1989 onward BASICODE programs were transmitted via radio throughout the GDR. Also, a book was published which included a vinyl record with Bascoders for all computers common in the GDR.''BASICODE Mit Programmen auf Schallplatte für Heimcomputer'' by Horst Völz, 1990, ISBN 3-341-00895-0 The last revision of BASICODE, which featured color graphics, was released as BASICODE 3C in 1991.


The end of BASICODE

From about 1990 onward the popularity of BASICODE declined rapidly due to the rise of 16- and 32-bit computers, such as the Atari ST, CBM Amiga, Acorn Archimedes and the plethora of IBM-PC compatible clones. Even though there were Bascoders for these machines, BASICODE was too limited to make use of the resources that the new generation of computers provided. As the hardware, Operating Systems and software of new computers became more and more complex, many users were unable or less inclined to write their own programs. The rise of several sophisticated but incompatible
graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...
s and the decline in popularity of 8-bit computers, reduced the usefulness of BASICODE, and brought about the demise. The successor of the GDR's state broadcaster, the Deutschlandsender Kultur (which later became part of the new
Deutschlandradio Deutschlandradio (DLR; ) is a national German public radio broadcaster. History ''Deutschlandfunk'' was originally a West German news radio targeting listeners within West Germany as well as in neighbouring countries, ''Deutschlandfunk Kultur'' ...
), continued to broadcast BASICODE programs until about 1992. A planned standard called BASICODE 4 never became reality, because NOS stopped supporting the project shortly after BASICODE 3C was released. BASICODE is still used by enthusiasts, in particular 8-bit computer fans, for nostalgic value, but is not of any practical relevance.


Historical significance

BASICODE was an early attempt at creating a standard for the exchange of programs and data across mutually incompatible home computer systems. It is roughly contemporary to the
MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...
standard developed by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, which specified a shared hardware platform in addition to a common BASIC dialect. These computers were sold by multiple companies and directly competed with other popular home computers. MSX was successful mostly in the home markets of the manufacturers, for example
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
, the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
and
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
. Unlike MSX, BASICODE made no effort to standardise the hardware it ran on, rather it offered a standardised subset of the ubiquitous BASIC programming language and a common data format for
cassette tape The Compact Cassette, also commonly called a cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog audio, analog magnetic tape recording format for Sound recording and reproduction, audio recording and playback. Invented by L ...
s which could be read and written on all computers for which BASICODE was available. As a result of this device independence, unlike MSX, BASICODE was not limited to computers by specific manufacturers. The
installed base Installed base of a product is the number of units that are currently in use by customers. It provides a measurement of a company's existing customer base and the extent of their investment in a particular product or technology. In contrast to m ...
of BASICODE is hard to estimate, because both the Basicoders and the programs written in BASICODE were generally freely available. They were available for a large number of home computers sold during this era. Though not a commercial product, several vendors offered versions on tape which could be bought cheaply, presumably aimed at those that could not receive BASICODE radio broadcasts. It must be stated that BASICODE was, by design, unable to use the capabilities of the host computers to their full extent. The language standard defined by BASICODE was the lowest common denominator of all relevant computer systems. This concept was partially abandoned only with BASICODE3/3C, as some computers or computer variants like the
ZX80 The Sinclair ZX80 is a home computer launched on 29 January 1980 by Science of Cambridge Ltd. (later to be better known as Sinclair Research). It is notable for being one of the first computers available in the United Kingdom for less than a hu ...
/
ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-c ...
and the KC87 were not capable of graphics and color and the new sections of BASICODE using these capabilities were not usable on them. Especially for applications that relied on timing and graphics or sound, for example
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
s, BASICODE was clearly inferior to programs written in "native" BASIC or
machine code In computer programming, machine code is computer code consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). For conventional binary computers, machine code is the binaryOn nonb ...
. The strengths of BASICODE were in the areas of application design, education software and data sharing. The BASICODE format was also used for Pascal programs. Pascal was a much more consistent language across systems, but compilers were available only for very few types of home computers. The underlying concept of BASICODE, which is the definition of a language standard for platform-independent software development and the implementation of said standard as system-specific runtimes (Bascoder) was later revisited in the programming language
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, via
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
-specific
Java Virtual Machine A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally descr ...
s which execute Java programs. Additionally, the distribution of data and information in the BASICODE data format is reminiscent of current platform-agnostic document types like the
Portable Document Format Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating syste ...
(PDF) and the PDF reader applications it necessitates.


The BASICODE data format

In the BASICODE format, the recording of programs is analogous to the recording of data. So, when recording programs, the commands are not read and written in the form of single
byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
units ( tokens), but character by character. A data block begins with the character 02 (STX, start of text), and ends with the character 03 (ETX, end of text). After ETX, a check byte made up of the previous bytes including STX and ETX by binary addition (XOR), is transmitted. A 0D character (decimal 13) marks the end of a line during transmission. Data files created by programs are able to use all characters as data and must contain no control characters. Each byte is transmitted in the sequence "1 start bits - 8 data bits - 2 stop bits". The data bits are sent with the least significant bit first. The most significant bit is transmitted inverted and is always 0 (transmitted as 1) because BASICODE uses only
ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...
characters. So another way to describe the transmit sequence is "1 start bit - 7 data bits - 3 stop bits". The resulting redundancy is intended for maximising compatibility with different computers. For the audio signals, square waves in the form of a 1200 Hz wave for a "0" bit and two 2400 Hz waves for a "1" bit are used, resulting in a time of 1/1200 seconds for each bit. A pause longer than 1/1800 seconds between waves marks the beginning of a byte, making the following wave the start bit. After the start bit and before the eight data bits is another pause of at least 1/1800 seconds. A 2400 Hz signal with a length of five seconds marks the beginning of a transmission and is used for synchronization of the reading program. At the end of the transmission, a 2400 Hz signal with a length of one second is sent. The theoretical data rate of this format is 1200 bits per second. Considering the transmission of three additional bits per data byte and the pauses before and after the start bit, this results in a usable data rate of 102 bytes per second, and about 6 kilobytes per minute.


Decoding Audio Cassettes

On a modern computer, Basicode audio cassettes can be decoded using minimodem, a freely available software modem. For example, for a cassette converted into a
WAV Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced or ) is an audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on personal computers. The format was developed and published for the first time in 1991 ...
file ''basicode.wav'', can be decoded to its corresponding data bytes via the command: minimodem --rx 1200 -S 1200 -M 2400 --startbits 1 -7 --stopbits 3 -f basicode.wav >basicode.txt


See also

*
Hardware abstraction Hardware abstractions are sets of routines in software that provide programs with access to hardware resources through programming interfaces. The programming interface allows all devices in a particular class ''C'' of hardware devices to be acc ...
* Kansas City standard *
Library (computing) In computing, a library is a collection of System resource, resources that can be leveraged during software development to implement a computer program. Commonly, a library consists of executable code such as compiled function (computer scienc ...
*
Virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...


References


Further reading

* Michael Wiegand, Manfred Fillinger: ''BASICODE. Mit Programmkassette.'' Ravensburger Buchverlag, Ravensburg 1986, * Hermine Bakker, Jaques Haubrich (authors), Stichting BASICODE (publisher): ''Het BASICODE-3 boek.'' 3. Auflage. Kluwer Technische Boeken B.V., Deventer/ Antwerpen 1988, * Horst Völz: ''Basicode mit Programmen auf Schallplatte für Heimcomputer.'' Verlag Technik, Berlin 1990,


External links

*
Official Dutch Hobbyscoop-site
the original development group of BASICODE

- Historical information *
BasiCode – Software für alle
- Information about history and programming
downloadable tape images
downloads are with permission of Hobbyscoop
A collection of BASICODE programs by various authors
Various BASICODE programs {{DEFAULTSORT:Basicode BASIC programming language family Dutch inventions Computer-related introductions in 1980 1980 establishments in the Netherlands 1980 in computing Computer-related introductions in 1982 1982 in computing Science and technology in East Germany