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Mallard BasicMallard BASIC was a BASIC interpreter for CP/M written by Locomotive Software and supplied with the Amstrad PCW range of small business computers. Mallard BASIC could also run on the Spectrum 3+ under CP/M. In the 1980s it was standard industry practice to bundle a BASIC interpreter with microcomputers, even though the PCW was primarily a wordprocessor for business use. However, the machine was not a dedicated WP: it also ran the CP/M operating system. Though there were existing implementations of BASIC for CP/M, such as Digital Research's CBASIC and the third-party ZBASIC, they followed the earlier 1970s model of compilers, fed source code prepared in a separate text editor. Mallard was more like a traditional micro ROM BASIC, with an integrated editor which was tailored for the PCW's nonstandard 90-column screen. Although the PCW actually had excellent monochrome graphics support for its time and specification, very closely comparable to the Hercules Graphics Card for the PC, Mallard BASIC had no graphics support whatsoever. Instead, Locomotive optimised it for business use, with, for instance, full ISAM random-access file support, making it excellent for writing database applications. It was also heavily optimised for speed - it is named after the LNER A4 class 4468 Mallard locomotive, the fastest steam train in the world, once again displaying the company's fondness for railway-oriented nomenclature. Graphics could be implemented by loading the GSX extension to CP/M, but this was cumbersome for BASIC programmers. (For more information on GSX, see the articles on GEM and Digital Research.) The lack of graphics support was rectified by several third-party extensions, of which the most popular was LEB: Lightning Extended BASIC. This patched Mallard BASIC, replacing the redundant LET keyword with LEB, which could be followed by a wide variety of parameters to allow sophisticated graphics (for the time) to be drawn on screen, saved to disc, printed, et cetera. Probably the most widespead Mallard application ever was RPED, the text editor supplied with the PCW. The name was short for Roland Perry's EDitor, the program being put together quickly by an Amstrad executive when it was realised that CP/M came with no usable full-screen editor. External links
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