This is probably a too-wild idea, but what I personally would love to see would be to adopt the extensions of Dr Andy White's BetaBASIC.
I wrote most of the Wikipedia article about BetaBASIC:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_BASIC
Even 40+ years later, it remains one of my favourite ever BASIC dialects. I did badly miss integer variables, but it was IMHO the most thoughtful and considered extension of Sinclair BASIC ever made.
I am a little sad that the SAM Coupé's BASIC, which Wright also wrote, has never had a FOSS clone.
If you still want to work on it, add sample code. I think that’s a must for a programming language page.
I see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_BASIC doesn’t, either but at least it has a list of commands. I still prefer sample code, though. It is the better way to present things, even though it will give an incomplete overview of capabilities.
Oh my word. I haven't played with it in some years. That doesn't make it impossible, just harder... And ideally, non-trivial examples...
I used to do window shopping at computer store that had them in display, but they weren't worth the investment, most of my friends were slowly moving into the Amiga already, and I eventually got a PC.
I would say a bit of its ideas lives on Spectrum Next.
You're right. I feel it should have had a much faster Z80 as stock, but it was probably too expensive at the time.
The very next year, the MSX Turbo R machines shipped with an R800 CPU that was twice the speed and could run 16-bit code:
https://www.msx.org/wiki/ASCII_R800
This is more or less a Z280:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_Z280
> I used to do window shopping at computer store that had them in display, but they weren't worth the investment
I had one. I sold it to a friend about 20Y ago for £30. I bitterly regret that; a decade later it was worth 10x that, and now, I could get £1000 easily. I had some addons and extras.
> I would say a bit of its ideas lives on Spectrum Next.
I have one of those too. :-)
In some ways more ambitious, in some ways less, but the SAM had a better BASIC and a better DOS, and felt more like a thoughtful considered extension, while the Next feels like a clone Spectrum with a fibreglass body kit stuck on with spoiler and airdam, turbocharger, nitrous oxide injection, and pulsing coloured lights underneath. ;-)
I wasn't aware of those systems.