Yes, you definitely want a proper BASIC, and BBC BASIC V would just about do it. It's actually a decent BASIC, not some unstructured POS, and it's got an integr

Yes, you definitely want a proper BASIC, and BBC BASIC V would just about do it. It's actually a decent BASIC, not some unstructured POS, and it's got an integrated assembler. So even if you're an assembly language programmer, you can treat it like an assembler with a fancy macro language. It does smell of the 1980s, sporting line numbers and RESTORE/DATA and implicit variable declaration. But it's a reassuring, nostalgic smell, even if not a healthy one, a bit like four star petrol, perhaps, or stale tobacco smoke. A far cry from its Microsoft BASIC equivalent, with its two-char variable names and single-dimension arrays: nothing there but the stench of ordure and corpses.