Atari XL - Page 235

APPENDIX 3
SPEEDING UP PROGRAMS
There are several things you can do to increase the
running speed of your BASIC programs.
Unfortunately, this is usually at the expense of
clarity, and you may find it useful to keep a 'slow',
but easy-to-follow version of your program should
you wish to amend it at a later date.
1 Remove all unnecessary spaces andREMs
from the program. A small speed increase
will result, because BASIC will not have to
skip over redundant spaces to find executable
commands.
2 Always use variables instead of constants.
The XL can handle variables much more
rapidly than numbers. This is especially
important in FOR ... NEXT loops.
3
Use as many statements per line separated
by ':' as possible.
4 Re-use the same variables whenever
possible.
5
Use the zero elements of arrays when
possible.
6
Assign often used variables early on in the
program. The XL stores all variables in a
table. The first declared variables are the first
in the table and are found more quickly.
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