The BASIC language is mostly unrelated to the processor underneath. They could have made the syntax, I/O setup, etc. any way they wanted for either processor.
From a recent email I sent a nephew who wants to get into programming:
Quote:
Since processors only run their own machine language, higher-level languages (e.g., BASIC, C, Pascal, etc.) have to be either interpreted or compiled. If interpreted, the instructions are decoded at runtime by a machine-language program. If compiled, the instructions are figured out at compile time, producing either a machine-language program to run, or a list of addresses of machine-language routines to run. (Obviously then the compiled one will run faster than the interpreted one.) A compiler is a piece of software similar to an assembler, but produces processor-usable code out of a higher-level language instead of out of assembly language.
The topic at
viewtopic.php?t=18 turned into a discussion on 6502 v. Z80 about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way down the first page.