S-BASIC

Well, one of the BASICs that came with my Kaypro is called S-BASIC and it's really exciting. You can write readable structured source code in this BASIC and then compile the source into a real .COM file. Jerry Pournelle of Byte lumped S-BASIC in with CBASIC when he reviewed the Kaypro. That tells me that he didn't check out S-BASIC any better than I had. (Kaypro is now shipping S-BASIC, CBASIC and MBASIC.)

My excitement is not without two reservations. First, S-BASIC is not well documented, so you will spend a lot of time writing and running little programs to test the syntax and structure of some of the more obscure (but necessary) features. Second, S-BASIC has some definite bugs (sequential file access problems, for instance).

S-BASIC was written by Gilbert Ohnysty under the name Topaz. Kaypro bought S-BASIC lock, stock, and name-and I understand that Gilbert is now an employee. Little wonder that Kaypro 4s and lOs include it. (You can purchase S-BASIC for only $75 directly from Kaypro.)

An informal poll has led me to conclude that less than 5 percent of Kaypro owners have tried S-BASIC. Part of the problem might be that it is a compiler. But the main problem, I'm sure, is the documentation.
(Micro Cornucopia, Oct 1983)