Basie

Few notes. Make them count.

Basie is a statically typed systems language for Z80 machines. Its compiler runs under CP/M and turns source into native Z80 code in a single pass, and a separate link step keeps only the routines and data a program can reach.

The language is memory-safe without a garbage collector. A record passed to a routine is an alias that can't outlive the call. Records that come and go live in fixed-size pools, each with exactly one owner, and are released automatically when that owner goes away. Out-of-range indexes, narrowing conversions and stale references trap before they can touch the wrong storage. The guiding principle is that whatever can be decided before the program runs should be, so the machine pays at run time only for what can't be known any earlier.

Books

Programming Basie

A tutorial on writing memory-safe Z80 programs for CP/M, built around a complete, self-checking program in every chapter. It starts with a single calculation and finishes with a command-processing utility that parses input, allocates records from a pool and reports its results.

Specification and source

The language specification, toolchain documentation, standard library and compiler source are in the Basie repository.