 
           THE TURBO COMPILER
       Documentation and Operating
              Instructions
            by Dave Arlington
  Original Program by Frank Ostrowski

      This documentation is provided
 by the Western New York Atari Users
 Group and may be reprinted freely
 provided this credit is included.
 
      I know everyone is still
 rubbing their hands in glee over
 TURBO-BASIC, the new public domain
 Basic interpreter imported from
 Holland and Germany. This month we
 are proud to present a new treat
 from our international friends
 overseas, the TURBO COMPILER.
      The TURBO COMPILER will
 increase the speed of your TURBO
 BASIC programs 3-5 times and regular
 Atari BASIC programs can be speeded
 up to 10-15 times faster.
 Unfortunately, like TURBO BASIC, the
 TURBO COMPILER will only run on the
 XL/XE series of computers. In
 addition, the finished compiled
 programs will also only run on the
 XL/XE series.
      The TURBO COMPILER is very easy
 to operate. It can be used with more
 than one disk drive, even Drive 8,
 the 130XE ramdisk. On the TURBO
 COMPILER disk, you will find several
 files. The important ones for the
 operation of the TURBO COMPILER are
 COMPILER.COM and RUNTIME.COM. Before
 you begin, you should prepare two
 disks. The first one should be a
 blank formatted disk with DOS.SYS
 and DUP.SYS written on it. Your
 second disk should contain your
 BASIC program (TURBO or ATARI
 BASIC).
      To begin, insert the TURBO
 COMPILER disk into your drive and
 turn your computer on. When it has
 finished loading you will be in
 TURBO BASIC. Type DOS to get to the
 DOS 2.5 menu. Choose DOS Option 'L',
 Load Binary File and load the file
 COMPILER.COM. After a short while,
 you will see a screen full of
 German. If you do not read German,
 do not worry, that is what this
 article is for! At any time that you
 are on this screen, you may reboot
 your system by hitting Control-R or
 you may return to DOS by hitting
 Control-D. You will be asked if you
 really want to do this. If you do,
 don't forget to 'J' for Ja and not
 'Y' for Yes!!
      To compile your programs,
 remove the TURBO COMPILER disk from
 the drive and insert the disk with
 the program you want to compile. (If
 you have two drives, insert your
 disk with the program to compile in
 Drive 2 and the blank DOS disk in
 Drive 1.) Press the number 1 key
 (Number 2 if you have two drives). A
 complete listing of all the files on
 that drive will appear on the screen
 with one highlighted in inverse
 video. Using the arrow keys,
 highlight the file you want to
 compile and hit Return. That's all
 there is to it!
      At the top of the screen, you
 will see the line numbers fly by as
 the program is compiled. When it is
 finished, you will be prompted for a
 file name to save your compiled
 program under. It has to have an
 extender of CTB (for Compiled Turbo
 Basic). The program will not let you
 use any other extender. At this
 time, if you have one drive, you
 should remove your disk  with your
 original program on it and replace
 it with your blank DOS disk. If you
 want your compiled program to be an
 AUTORUN file, you should name it
 AUTORUN.CTB. Then the file will
 automatically load and run at bootup
 time.
      There is one more step that you
 must do to get a completely runnable
 compiled program. Go back to DOS and
 copy the file RUNTIME.COM from the
 TURBO COMPILER disk to the disk with
 your compiled program on it. Rename
 the RUNTIME.COM file to the name
 AUTORUN.SYS. Your disk is now ready
 to go. The TURBO COMPILER does not
 compile to runnable code, you must
 run the RUNTIME.COM file to run your
 compiled program.
      One technical note on the TURBO
 COMPILER: If you're not familiar
 with other compilers for the ATARI
 computers, you should know that many
 have trouble compiling certain types
 of statements or insist that you
 organize your program structure in a
 certain way. So far none of these
 problems have occured on any
 programs we have tested with the
 TURBO COMPILER. The only statement
 that wouldn't compile so far is the
 END statement. The only program
 structure that we have had trouble
 with is a FOR-NEXT loop that has two
 or more NEXTs for one FOR. For
 example:
 
 10 FOR X=1 TO 5
 20 IF X=3 THEN NEXT X
 30 NEXT X
 
      Other than those two examples,
 we have had no problems compiling
 any type of program, either TURBO or
 ATARI BASIC. Please let us know of
 any problems you run into compiling
 any types of statements or programs.
      Whether you program in TURBO
 BASIC or just want to turbocharge
 your old Atari BASIC programs to
 super speed, I'm sure you will find
 the TURBO COMPILER will fit all your
 speed needs.
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