tape. In addition to a set of about 50 BASIC commands, functions and operators that were common across all BASIC dialects, the language standard of BASICODE 2 defined a library of subroutines that emulated the same capabilities across all supported computers. To achieve this, all program lines below 1000 were reserved for the Bascoder, and BASICODE programs could only start at line number 1000. The subroutines of the Bascoder in the lines below 1000 were called with a GOSUB command. Necessary arguments were passed to the Bascoder by using special predefined variables that were reserved for use by the Bascoder. The standard contained a number of additional rules that were made necessary by the limitations of some computer models. For example, on the ZX-81 a line of code could only contain a single BASIC command, a behaviour that almost no other computer shared. On a KC series computer, a line of code could not be longer than 60 characters. These limitations had to be enforced for all BASICODE programs to guarantee platform independence, because the Bascoder was interpreted by the same computer specific BASIC interpreter as the BASICODE program itself. Thus, the Bascoders were loaded on the various computers like normal programs, and when run, they provided the additional routines for the common standard and cassette I/O. Programs written in BASICODE were only usable after the Bascoder had been loaded and started. However, on some computers the BASICODE programs could be merged with the routines of the Bascoders and saved in the native data format. The resulting program was not platform independent any longer, but due to the higher data density of most native formats it could be loaded much faster than the same program in BASICODE format. Also, because it was not necessary to load the complete Bascoder to run the program, more RAM remained available at run time. There were BASICODE 2 Bascoders for the Exidy Sorcerer, Colour Genie, PET, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX81, ZX Spectrum, QL, Acorn Atom, BBC Micro, Electron, TRS-80, MSX, Oric Atmos, P2000T, Grundy NewBrain, Amstrad CPC, IBM PC, Apple II, TI-99/4A, Aquarius and others. Additionally, advanced users were able to write their own Bascoder for their system of choice, since the language standard and data format were open and well-documented. The BASICODE 2 standard made the development of platform independent programs with advanced capabilities (for the time) possible. In addition, BASICODE was