Some BASIC was slow, Darthmouth BASIC was compiled to machine code before execution, and to make it fit as the machine shell on 8 bit computers, the only option available on ROM was an interpreter.
Machines using CP/M had BASIC compilers available, and professional devs had the option to buy BASIC compilers for 8 and 16 bit home computers, when the 16 bit home computers came to be, BASIC compilers became common again.
It was only during the glory 8 bit days, with most users being students with limited budgets, and the pain of switching tapes all the time, that made using BASIC compilers a no go option for most, thus we ended up using DATA blocks for Assembly code within our budget, or if lucky to get a hexdump monitor or proper Assembler, use those instead.
I’m aware you can compile BASIC but we aren’t talking about those systems. We are talking specifically about the ones which you just admitted were slow.
Machines using CP/M had BASIC compilers available, and professional devs had the option to buy BASIC compilers for 8 and 16 bit home computers, when the 16 bit home computers came to be, BASIC compilers became common again.
It was only during the glory 8 bit days, with most users being students with limited budgets, and the pain of switching tapes all the time, that made using BASIC compilers a no go option for most, thus we ended up using DATA blocks for Assembly code within our budget, or if lucky to get a hexdump monitor or proper Assembler, use those instead.