The ACTION! system is made up of five different parts:
The Monitor is the boss of the ACTION! system. Through it you can call the Editor, the Compiler, or get access to some system options. This is the monitor's only job, but it is a important one, allowing you to decide which part of the ACTION! system you want to use at any given time.
The Editor is where you create new programs and modify old ones. It doesn't know anything about the ACTION! language or compiler (that is, it's simply a text editor and doesn't check language syntax), so you can use it for other word processing or program entry applications. The Editor also allows you to save the text in the editor buffer or read text from a peripheral device (disk drive, cassette, etc.) into the editor buffer.
The ACTION! Language is what you use to communicate with the ATARI machine and tell it to do things. You write a program in the ACTION! Language, and then tell the ACTION! Compiler to translate it into a form the computer can understand (machine language), and then you run the program.
"Why such an involved process? BASIC isn't like that." First of all, the process isn't that involved once you understand what's going on and why. Secondly, BASIC isn't like that because it is an Interpreter, not a Compiler. BASIC translates each line as the program is running, and it takes some time to do that, thereby slowing down the speed of your program. ACTION!, on the other hand, breaks the running and syntax checking of your program into two parts. The Compiler checks your program for proper syntax, and does the translating. When it is through, your program can be run directly, i.e., without any syntax checking. This makes your program run with incredible speed.
As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, the ACTION! Compiler translates an ACTION! program into machine code. The only thing it requires is that the program be in proper ACTION! form. The compiler will give you an error if you use syntax which is illegal in the ACTION! Language, just like an English teacher would give you an error (or red mark) if you used improper English in class.
The ACTION! system also contains a group of prewritten routines which you can use in your programs. This group of routines is called the ACTION! Library, and it enables you to do all the things you can do in BASIC (i.e., PLOT, DRAWTO, PRINT, etc.) and much more without writing any special subroutines of your own.
TECHNICAL NOTE: although the ACTION! compiler does translate an ACTION! to 6502 machine language, that compiled code will not run without the ACTION! cartridge because it (the code) does some calls to routines in the cartridge. If you are writing products for resale, a runtime version of ACTION! which will make your program work without the cartridge can be licensed from OSS Inc.