Subject: BBasic Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 13:39:02 -0700 From: Phil Hibbs To: FreeDOS I posted this today on comp.lang.basic.misc: > Back in the mid Eighties, my father and I wrote a Basic interpreter > for the IBM PC, called BBasic. It was based on the BBC Basic dialect > as used by Acorn in the BBC Micro, which is an excellent derivative of > the language. We built in a number of our own extensions, such as > multi-line IF statements, matrix manipulation functions, full runtime > statement interpretation, and a full-screen debug TRACE command. It > was marketed unsuccessfully, but did manage to get onto the cover of > PC Plus magazine in the UK. > > It is written entirely in x86 assembly language, and can be built > using MASM or (I believe) TASM, but don't ask me what version! > > I'm sure we could be persuaded to zip up all the source code and > documentation and make it available under some sort of free, possibly > GPL-like licence. I don't think it could be GPLd, as there may be > problems with the proprietary libraries that MASM and TASM use. > > Would anybody be interested in this? The effort wouldn't be too great, > but if no-one's interested, there's no point. The product is out of > date and of no commercial interest, but there may be someone out there > interested enough in assembly language and interpreter implimentation > that could persuade us to do it. We probably will anyway, but an > expression of interest may spur us on. > > Regards, > > Phil Hibbs. Ralf Quint replied, mentioned the FreeDOS project, and proposed incorporating BBasic into it. So here I am. I see you already have at least one Basic Interpreter (bwBASIC), but I guess another can't hurt. I mentioned GPLing BBasic to my father some time ago, and he was amenable to the idea. I'll discuss it with him this weekend, but he's in Paris now. I'm only here to get the ball rolling, I don't really have the time to see this through and stay with the project (but I may drop in from time to time and see how our baby is doing). So, what I want is for someone to take on the tasks of preparing the code for GPL release, provide and administer web space, and maybe run a project to kick the damn thing into shape, fix the few bugs that there are, etc. Ralf gets first pick of any of those jobs that he fancies, 'cos he emailed me first! It's got a full user manual, in Microsoft Word format. It's a great manual, 'cos I wrote most of it! :-) This weekend I'll get my dad to agree, and I'll get hold of all the source code and stuff next week. Phil. http://www.snark.freeserve.co.uk -- > I may have missed something, but if you use a compiler, you don't > have to worry about the libray... > The GNU licence is about the source code, not about how you > are going to compile it... Sure, I'm not concerned about that any more. I don't think there's anything in the GPL that says that GPL'd code has to work as provided. We'll GPL the code as is, and leave it up to the licencee (that's you guys!) to get it to actiually compile (well, assemble actually), link, and execute without violating the GPL. I'll have to look into some sort of licence to put the documentation under - suggestions? I know this is a pain, it slows the whole process down, but it has to be done properly. Phil. -- Okay, basic agreement with my father is achieved on the GPL. As to whether this cause any problems to users, that's not our problem. I'll get the source ASAP and prep it. Phil. -- >As it's "just" an interpreter without any separate libraries >or the like, i think it's not such a big deal anyway. Well, actually, one of BBasic's features does complicate the issue. It comes with a bbasic.rtb file, RTB standing for Run Time Base. This is a file that contains the interpreter, and can be attached to the program code and saved as an .EXE file to make a BBasic program into a standalone program. The RTB is, of course, built from the same source code as the separate interpreter. Maybe the LGPL would be more appropriate, as I'd like people to be able to create non-GPL programs using BBasic. Phil. -- Just to let you know what the current state of affairs is, I've got what I believe is all of the BBasic source code, but one of the files is not ours! We got it from Walter Bright, author of Zortech C++, and the copyright is his. I thought this was going to be a problem, but when I mentioned it to my father he said that it wasn't being used any more. Hw is going to look into it, and see what the situation is. It's 10 years since this source code was last being worked on, so memories are a little faded. Bear with us, and we may well have a source release some time next week. Phil. http://www.snark.freeserve.co.uk