Editing Atari Microsoft BASIC (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced|section|date=October 2019}}

When Microsoft ported their originally [[Intel 8080]]-based BASIC to the 6502, they took the time to expand the [[floating-point arithmetic|floating-point]] format from the original 32-bit format to an optional 40-bit format for improved accuracy. Both versions could be compiled from the same code by providing compiler flags; if the 32-bit format used the resulting code was just under 8&nbsp;KB in length, if the 40-bit format was used, it was closer to 9&nbsp;KB.

The Atari 8-bit home computers were designed with a slot for an 8&nbsp;[[Kilobyte|KB]] [[ROM cartridge]]. Atari's programmers struggled to fit Microsoft's BASIC into a single cartridge while also adding features to take advantage of the platform.  In the summer of 1978, Atari decided to outsource the porting effort so that BASIC would be ready in time for the 1979 launch of the system, and this led them to [[Shepardson Microsystems]] Inc. (SMI). SMI quickly decided the job was impossible, and instead proposed creating an entirely new version of BASIC. This became [[Atari BASIC]] and was released with the Atari 400 and 800 in 1979.<ref name="atari">{{cite web |url=http://www.atariarchives.org/iad/introduction.php |title=Inside Atari DOS - Introduction}}</ref>

Atari continued working with the MS code and released a version of it on [[floppy disk]] in 1981. In addition to the extended range of standard commands in MS compared to Atari BASIC, the new version added a number of additional commands for graphics and sound and other features of the platform. It also included integer variables and a complete integer math package{{efn|In contrast to Commodore's versions of MS BASIC, which included integer variables but performed mathematics by converting the values to floating-point format.}} which offered improved performance. However, as it required at least 32&nbsp;KB of RAM and only ran from a disk, it was never particularly popular.

A second release, Atari Microsoft BASIC II, moved most of the code onto an expanded 16&nbsp;KB cartridge and placed an additional 11&nbsp;KB of more rarely used code on disk, meaning that many programs intended for cross-platform use could now be run from the cartridge alone. Released in 1982, BASIC II also saw little real-world use.