Rocky Mountain BASIC (also RMB or RM-BASIC) is a dialect of 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 ...

created by

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

. It was especially popular for control of

automatic test equipment Automatic test equipment or automated test equipment (ATE) is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the device under test (DUT), equipment under test (EUT) or unit under test (UUT), using automation to quickly perform measure ...

using

GPIB Glycoprotein Ib (GPIb), also known as CD42, is a component of the GPIb-V-IX complex on platelets. The GPIb-V-IX complex binds von Willebrand factor, allowing platelet adhesion and platelet plug formation at sites of vascular injury. Glycoprotei ...

. It has several features which are or were unusual in BASIC dialects, such as event-driven operation, extensive external I/O support,

complex number In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the for ...

support, and

matrix Matrix (: matrices or matrixes) or MATRIX may refer to: Science and mathematics * Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of numbers, symbols or expressions * Matrix (logic), part of a formula in prenex normal form * Matrix (biology), the m ...

manipulation functions. Today, RMB is mainly used in environments where an investment in RMB software, hardware, or expertise already exists.

History and implementations

The origins of Rocky Mountain BASIC can be traced to Hewlett-Packard's facilities in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. Since Colorado is located in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

, this variation of BASIC was dubbed "Rocky Mountain BASIC", to differentiate it from the other BASIC dialects developed within the company. It is unclear if the Rocky Mountain BASIC name was original to HP or came from outside, but HP/

Keysight Keysight Technologies, Inc. is an American company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment and software. The name is a blend of ''key'' and ''insight''. The company was formed as a spin-off of Agilent Technologies, which inhe ...

use the term in their own documentation, as well as the more formal "HP BASIC" product name. The HP 9830A, introduced in 1972, was the top of the 9800 line programmable calculator line, which was the first HP computer which fit on a desktop to have a

BASIC interpreter A BASIC interpreter is an Interpreter (computing), interpreter that enables users to enter and run programs in the BASIC programming language, language and was, for the first part of the microcomputer era, the default Application software, applica ...

in read-only memory (ROM). The interpreter could be extended with ROMs for features like mass storage, plotter graphics, string variables and matrix operations. It had a one-line LED panel for line editing, but was followed in the late 1970s by the faster HP 9835 and HP 9845 desktop computers with full screen CRT displays. These were amongst the first workstations aimed at scientists and engineers for both technical computing and instrumentation control. These were followed by the HP 9826 and HP 9836 computers, which were the leading models of the

HP 9800 series The HP 9800 is a family of what were initially called programmable calculators and later desktop computers that were made by Hewlett-Packard, replacing their first HP 9100 calculator. It is also named "98 line". The 9830 and its successors were ...

of computers. All four of these computers ran versions of Rocky Mountain BASIC. These computers were often used as controllers for HP

, connected via the HP Instrument Bus, (HP-IB). HP wanted to provide a

that would be friendly to the engineers and scientists who used such test equipment. The BASIC programming language was chosen, as it was already intended to be easy for novices; knowledgeable users could also program them in

assembly language In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...

or a version of Pascal. Early implementations of RMB software on the HP 9000 platform were called "HP BASIC/WS". BASIC/WS ran stand-alone. It provided

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 ...

(OS),

integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, an ...

(

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

and

debugger A debugger is a computer program used to test and debug other programs (the "target" programs). Common features of debuggers include the ability to run or halt the target program using breakpoints, step through code line by line, and display ...

), and the language

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 ...

. Later, HP implemented RMB on top of the

HP-UX HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is a proprietary software, proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; current versions support HPE Integrity Servers, based on Intel's Itanium architect ...

operating system, and called it "BASIC/UX". BASIC/UX 300 ran on series 300 hardware and BASIC/UX 700 ran on series 700 hardware. BASIC/WS, BASIC/UX 300 and BASIC/UX 700 were last updated to fix Year 2000 date related issues. As technology advanced, HP was able to embed RMB implementations directly in the test equipment. The capabilities of these embedded implementations varied. These implementations went by a variety of names, including "HP Instrument BASIC" and "Board Test BASIC" ("BT-BASIC"). HP produced an RMB implementation for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

called "HP Instrument BASIC for Windows"; however, it never enjoyed the success of their other RMB products. Another company, TransEra of Orem, Utah, created a clone implementation of RMB, which they called "High Tech BASIC", or "HT BASIC" (now "HTBasic"), meant to run on IBM PC hardware. HP later licensed HT BASIC from TransEra Corporation, re-branded it, and sold it as "HP BASIC for Windows". It was unrelated to the HP-produced "HP Instrument BASIC for Windows". As of 2015, TransEra is still maintaining and updating HTBasic with fixes and new features - the current version is 10.0.3. Although HTBasic is fundamentally an interpreted language, a

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...

is available. Test & Measurement Systems, Inc., also known as TAMS, of Loveland, Colorado, acquired HP BASIC/WS and BASIC/UX 300 product responsibility in 1998. TAMS then sold and supported legacy versions of BASIC/WS and BASIC/UX . TAMS licensed BASIC/UX 700 from Agilent Technologies and ported RMB to both HP-UX 11i and

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial Linux distribution developed by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version for x86-64. Fedora Linux and ...

. The HP-UX 11i implementation was known as "BASIC for 11i" or "BASIC/UX 11i". The Red Hat Enterprise Linux version was known as "BASIC for Linux", "BASIC/LX" or "RMBLX". TAMS ceased operating on March 31, 2016. HP retained BASIC/UX 700 (E2045C, BASIC for HP-UX 10.20) until spinning off their instrument division as

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American global company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from Hewlett-Packar ...

. BASIC/UX 700 (on HP-UX 10.20) product responsibility went with Agilent Technologies, who eventually dropped support for it. Agilent referred customers to either TransEra for BASIC for Windows or to TAMS for BASIC/WS, BASIC/UX or BASIC for Linux.

References

www.agilent.com
nbsp;— Agilent site; search for "HP BASIC"
www.htbasic.com
nbsp;— HTBasic; RMB implementation for MS Windows (TransEra)
www.tamsinc.com
nbsp;— Test & Measurement Systems, Inc., a.k.a. TAMS; BASIC/WS, BASIC/UX, BASIC for Linux

nbsp;— Rack and Stack Systems; excellent history of early RMB systems {{BASIC BASIC programming language BASIC programming language family

History and implementations

See also

References