Rocky Mountain BASIC
Encyclopedia
Rocky Mountain BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC
programming language
created by Hewlett-Packard
. It was especially popular for control of automatic test equipment
using GPIB
. It has several features which are or were unusual in BASIC dialects, such as event-driven operation
, extensive external I/O
support, complex number
support, and matrix
manipulation functions. Today, RMB is mainly used in environments where an investment in RMB software, hardware, or expertise already exists. Completely new efforts are more likely to use more "modern" BASIC dialects (such as Visual Basic
), or eschew BASIC entirely in favor of some other high-level programming language
.
's Colorado
facilities. Since Colorado is located in the Rocky Mountains
, this variation of BASIC was dubbed "Rocky Mountain BASIC", to differentiate it from the many other BASIC dialects. As of this writing, it is unclear if the RMB name was original to HP or came from outside, but HP/Agilent now use the term in their own documentation, as well as the more formal "HP BASIC" product name.
In the late 1970s, HP introduced the 9835 and 9845 desktop computers, amongst the first workstations aimed at scientists and engineers for both technical computing and instrumentation control. These were followed by the 9826 and 9836 computers, which were the leading models of the HP 9000
series of computers. All four of these computers ran versions of Rocky Mountain Basic. These computers were often used as controllers for HP automatic test equipment
, connected via the HP Instrument Bus
. HP wanted to provide a programming language
which would be friendly to the engineers and scientists which used such test equipment. The BASIC
programming language, already intended to be easy for novices, was chosen (there was also a version of Pascal (programming language)
offered and knowledgeable users could also program them in assembly language
).
Early implementations of RMB software on the HP 9000 platform were called HP BASIC/WS. BASIC/WS ran stand-alone. It provided operating system
(OS), integrated development environment
(editor
and debugger
), and the language interpreter
. Later, HP implemented RMB on top of the HP-UX
OS, 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
called HP Instrument BASIC for Windows; however, it never enjoyed the success of their other RMB products.
Another company, TransEra, created a clone implementation of RMB, which they called High Tech BASIC, or HT BASIC (now HTBasic). HP
later licensed HT BASIC from TransEra Corporation of Orem, Utah, re-branded it, and sold it as HP BASIC for Windows (no relation to the HP-produced "HP Instrument BASIC for Windows"). As of 2010, TransEra is still maintaining and updating HTBasic with fixes and new features. Although HTBasic is fundamentally an interpreted language, a compiler
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. As of 2009, TAMS continues to sell and support the legacy versions of BASIC/WS and BASIC/UX. TAMS also licensed BASIC/UX 700 from Agilent Technologies and ported RMB to both HP-UX 11i and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
. The HP-UX 11i implementation is known as "BASIC for 11i" or "BASIC/UX 11i". The Red Hat Enterprise Linux version is known as "BASIC for Linux", "BASIC/LX" or "RMBLX".
HP retained BASIC/UX 700 (E2045C) until spinning off their instrument division as Agilent Technologies
. The remaining RMB product responsibility went with Agilent Technologies, who eventually dropped support for it. Agilent now refers customers to either TransEra for BASIC for Windows or to TAMS for BASIC/WS, BASIC/UX or BASIC for Linux.
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
created by Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
. It was especially popular for control of automatic test equipment
Automatic test equipment
Automatic or Automated Test Equipment is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the Device Under Test , using automation to quickly perform measurements and evaluate the test results...
using GPIB
IEEE-488
IEEE-488 is a short-range digital communications bus specification. It was created for use with automated test equipment in the late 1960s, and is still in use for that purpose. IEEE-488 was created as HP-IB , and is commonly called GPIB...
. It has several features which are or were unusual in BASIC dialects, such as event-driven operation
Event-driven programming
In computer programming, event-driven programming or event-based programming is a programming paradigm in which the flow of the program is determined by events—i.e., sensor outputs or user actions or messages from other programs or threads.Event-driven programming can also be defined as an...
, extensive external I/O
Input/output
In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system , and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent from it...
support, complex number
Complex number
A complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
support, and matrix
Matrix (mathematics)
In mathematics, a matrix is a rectangular array of numbers, symbols, or expressions. The individual items in a matrix are called its elements or entries. An example of a matrix with six elements isMatrices of the same size can be added or subtracted element by element...
manipulation functions. Today, RMB is mainly used in environments where an investment in RMB software, hardware, or expertise already exists. Completely new efforts are more likely to use more "modern" BASIC dialects (such as Visual Basic
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft for its COM programming model...
), or eschew BASIC entirely in favor of some other high-level programming language
High-level programming language
A high-level programming language is a programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer. In comparison to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language elements, be easier to use, or be from the specification of the program, making the process of...
.
History and implementations
The origins of RMB can be traced back to HPHewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
's Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
facilities. Since Colorado is located in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, this variation of BASIC was dubbed "Rocky Mountain BASIC", to differentiate it from the many other BASIC dialects. As of this writing, it is unclear if the RMB name was original to HP or came from outside, but HP/Agilent now use the term in their own documentation, as well as the more formal "HP BASIC" product name.
In the late 1970s, HP introduced the 9835 and 9845 desktop computers, amongst the first workstations aimed at scientists and engineers for both technical computing and instrumentation control. These were followed by the 9826 and 9836 computers, which were the leading models of the HP 9000
HP 9000
HP 9000 is the name for a line of workstation and server computer systems produced by the Hewlett-Packard Company . The native operating system for almost all HP 9000 systems is HP-UX, a derivative of Unix. The HP 9000 brand was introduced in 1984 to encompass several existing technical...
series of computers. All four of these computers ran versions of Rocky Mountain Basic. These computers were often used as controllers for HP automatic test equipment
Automatic test equipment
Automatic or Automated Test Equipment is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the Device Under Test , using automation to quickly perform measurements and evaluate the test results...
, connected via the HP Instrument Bus
IEEE-488
IEEE-488 is a short-range digital communications bus specification. It was created for use with automated test equipment in the late 1960s, and is still in use for that purpose. IEEE-488 was created as HP-IB , and is commonly called GPIB...
. HP wanted to provide a programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
which would be friendly to the engineers and scientists which used such test equipment. The BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
programming language, already intended to be easy for novices, was chosen (there was also a version of Pascal (programming language)
Pascal (programming language)
Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
offered and knowledgeable users could also program them in assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
).
Early implementations of RMB software on the HP 9000 platform were called HP BASIC/WS. BASIC/WS ran stand-alone. It provided operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
(OS), integrated development environment
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
(editor
Source code editor
A source code editor is a text editor program designed specifically for editing source code of computer programs by programmers. It may be a standalone application or it may be built into an integrated development environment ....
and debugger
Debugger
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program that is used to test and debug other programs . The code to be examined might alternatively be running on an instruction set simulator , a technique that allows great power in its ability to halt when specific conditions are encountered but which...
), and the language interpreter
Interpreter (computing)
In computer science, an interpreter normally means a computer program that executes, i.e. performs, instructions written in a programming language...
. Later, HP implemented RMB on top of the HP-UX
HP-UX
HP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984...
OS, 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
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
called HP Instrument BASIC for Windows; however, it never enjoyed the success of their other RMB products.
Another company, TransEra, created a clone implementation of RMB, which they called High Tech BASIC, or HT BASIC (now HTBasic). HP
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
later licensed HT BASIC from TransEra Corporation of Orem, Utah, re-branded it, and sold it as HP BASIC for Windows (no relation to the HP-produced "HP Instrument BASIC for Windows"). As of 2010, TransEra is still maintaining and updating HTBasic with fixes and new features. Although HTBasic is fundamentally an interpreted language, a compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
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. As of 2009, TAMS continues to sell and support the legacy versions of BASIC/WS and BASIC/UX. TAMS also licensed BASIC/UX 700 from Agilent Technologies and ported RMB to both HP-UX 11i and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a Linux-based operating system developed by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86, x86-64, Itanium, PowerPC and IBM System z, and desktop versions for x86 and x86-64...
. The HP-UX 11i implementation is known as "BASIC for 11i" or "BASIC/UX 11i". The Red Hat Enterprise Linux version is known as "BASIC for Linux", "BASIC/LX" or "RMBLX".
HP retained BASIC/UX 700 (E2045C) until spinning off their instrument division as Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies , or Agilent, is a company that designs and manufactures electronic and bio-analytical measurement instruments and equipment for measurement and evaluation...
. The remaining RMB product responsibility went with Agilent Technologies, who eventually dropped support for it. Agilent now refers customers to either TransEra for BASIC for Windows or to TAMS for BASIC/WS, BASIC/UX or BASIC for Linux.