NotSoBASIC?

[Sparrowhawk]

Has anyone seen this before? I can't find an actual download so it may just be a reference document for a proposed language.

http://www.lingula.org.uk/~steve/NotSoB ... nition.txt

[dilwyn]

Has anyone seen this before? I can't find an actual download so it may just be a reference document for a proposed language.

http://www.lingula.org.uk/~steve/NotSoB ... nition.txt

It was posted on ql-users list on 25th January by Stephen Usher, I don't know if he's on here or not to tell us a bit more!

Code: Select all

Just a shameless plug for a blog post I've just written... ;-)

http://www.lingula.org.uk/wordpress/2014/01/25/its-been-30-years-since-the-announcement-of-an-important-computing-product/

Plug, plug, plug. Maybe I should go on BBC's "The One Show" next? ;-)

[Sparrowhawk]

I've neglected to read that list for ages. Thanks for the heads up, I'll check it out.

[stephen_usher]

I've just arrived on here after a posting on the QL-Users mailing list...

I'm afraid that after the lack of interest by others my enthusiasm waned totally.

I still believe that a SuperBASIC source compatible derivative with structures etc. would be a fabulous language for many applications.

[Dave]

I would love to see SuperBASIC feed into a web-based interpreted language. The handling of windows, i/o etc... It would beat the pants off Java.

Please don't lose heart. There's a big difference between saying something would be nice, and organising to actually do it. There's got to be something people can get behind.

With the number of free emulators nowadays, It's almost there.... Just needs to have an emulator stripped down to the sheer basics.

[stephen_usher]

Really it could do with a new implementation from scratch in a portable language and with the device driver part abstracted so that the backend can use native graphical toolkits, such as QT or Windows DirectDraw (or use QT on Windows) etc. Even a basic Curses driver for text terminals.

I would envisage that instead of the QL's "win_512x256a10x10_32" designation that a formal URI be used, such as "win:/512x256a10x10_32" and make all file operations also use URIs, allowing transparent network resource access.

As for the BASIC itself, effectively unchanged but extended with structures, extra data types and line numbers being optional.

If someone here has experience in language writing and especially Just In Time compilation techniques all the better. Otherwise it'll probably remain a pipedream.