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Hi Gordon, Yes it looks very interesting. I have substantial experience in Turbo C for DOS, so maybe we could add some of that functionality, especially for sounds. I am a bit pre-occupied at the moment with a manufacturing job which is consuming most of my time, but that should all be over early April, then I will be looking for something new. I will keep you informed. Regards etc, Ray. >----Original Message---- >From: gordon+dcglug@xxxxxxxxxx >Date: 15/03/2012 8:55 >To: "Devon/Cornwall GNU LUG"<list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> >Subj: [LUG] Return to .... BASIC ... > > >So my little project that I've been playing with since the new year was >on-show at the LUG meet last Saturday... > >And it's a BASIC interpreter... > >I know, I know... why, etc. because it's there... It's a personal project >that I want to share with anyone who's interested. > >Started off by wanting to get a 32 year old BASIC program going again in >C, so initially I was going to hand re-code the 3000 or so lines it in C, >but I thought what the heck, lets write a new BASIC. So I have. > >So while it does use line numbers (as all good BASICS do!), it can be >programmed without them if you use an external editor and don't use goto >or gosub... (and I may yet build a simple editor in) It's got most of the >nice stuff in modern structured language while/until, named procedures & >functions, recursion, local variables as well as some graphics - fairly >plain old 2D stuff, low and high resolution as well as "turtle" graphics >which are fun to play with. (well, I think so!) > >http://unicorn.drogon.net/rtb1.png> >I'm thinking of adding in sound of some sort (don't know what, yet), and >some sort of "sprite" handling - but I'm not really intending for it to be >some general purpose thing for people to write the next big financial, >maths, simulation, etc. app in like what we used to do, more something >just for a bit of fun.... (but hey, I'm not going to stop anyone!) > > >Then there's this Raspberry Pi thing, and while it wasn't actually in my >mind when I kicked this off, I'm now thinking I'll produce a turn-key >system for it that boots directly into RTB (for that's what I've called >it) and so I've started to write a teaching/reference manual for it too. I >know the RPi folks are dedicated to Python, but it's always nice to have >choice (and BASIC didn't do me any harm ;-) I've successfully compiled it >in an QEmu system running the RPi Debian image and although it's a bit >slow on my workstation (1.75GHz Athlon!) it does work an is very usable. > >So does anyone fancy having a play with it? There's a few bugs I need to >iron out and I'd be keen to get some feed back and suggestions for >features, etc. > >I'll GPL the source code eventually, but not for now. > >Let me know if anyones interested and I'll put a package together. It uses >the SDL libraries, so if you can run any SDL program (e.g. tuxpaint) then >this ought to run, but I know there are issues running binaries over >multiple distros, etc. although I'll look at a statically compiled version >if if gives issues. It's compiled under Debian Squeeze and runs on Lenny >OK, so I don't see any problems with it running under Ubuntu... > > >Back to my 32 year old BASIC program - well, I went out and bought a real >Apple II and got it going and my 32 year old 5.25" floppys are still >readable. All I need now is a serial card to transfer the program over as >I really don't fancy typing in 3000 lines of BASIC!!! > >http://unicorn.drogon.net/lode.jpg> >(that's not my program, but an old game I used to play!) > >I'll put up some more over the weekend, a bit busy with other "stuff" >today & tomorow )-: and I need to do more work on the manual as my writing >style is somewhat creative... > >Of anyone wants a quick preview, open an xterm and: > > wget http://unicorn.drogon.net/rtb.tar-O - | tar xfB - > cd rtb > ./rtb > >(it's 104KB, so not going to break your ADSL allowance!) > >If you can run tuxpaint, then this ought to run too as it uses the same >libraries, but if it doesn't run, please let me know. > >It ought to pop open a 640x420 window which you can type into.. Try this: > > load turtl3 > run > >There are some simple programs included then use the dir and load commands >to find and load then & type run to run them (don't add the .rtb when >using the load command) > >If you want it full-screen, then try > > ./rtb -f d > >which will list the modes avalable on your display, then > > ./rtb -f -m 0 > >where 0 is the mode/size you want from that list. It defaults to 640x480. >The screen font is 8x8 and might be a bit small on the higher resolutions. > >(the exit command will get you out of rtb back to normal without having to >kill it!) > >If you write some of your own stuff, one thing to look out for is a bug in >the parser to do with handling minus calculations - this will be parsed >incorrectly: a=colour- 1 but this will work fine: a=colour - 1 so use >plenty of spaces, but I'd appreciate fedback on any other bugs or oddities >you find! > >Enjoy, > >Gordon > >-- >The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG >http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list>FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq > -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq