This is not (at least, it was not intended to be) a 'my BASIC is better than yours' (and even less 'my OS is better than yours') thread. It was specifically an attempt to seek out somebody who would be interested in porting BBC BASIC for Windows onto another platform by using my relocatable object modules. Sadly nobody here seems to find this an interesting project; I will look elsewhere.
Putting the graphics aspect of BBC BASIC aside, what makes BBC BASIC for Windows a better BASIC then what is currently offered now? (most free) BaCon is a C translator so the advantage of a assembler in BBC4W rapidly diminishes.
I have said this from the beginning that my interest in BBC BASIC (Brandy BASIC V) was the easy to use (old school) graphics syntax and the auto clipping of off screen rendering. I have included the BBC graphics syntax in the ScriptBasic SDL extension module along with SDL_draw, SDL_image, SDL_terminal and a few routines I slapped together to fill in the holes.
You didn't seem to like my
Back to the Future comment on your forum where a BBC4ARM BASIC (possibly embedded) in Raspberry PI class development boards direction had merit. Taking advantage of your past ARM RISC knowledge when working on the original ACORN PCs seemed like a natural to me. With more home automation, security with mobile access, these
project boards are becoming more of a draw to hobbyists and as a educational tool. It's would be a new adventure but in familiar territory. It all depends my much energy and effort you're willing to invest changing platforms
IF this makes any sense to you.
Bringing Brandy up to an equivalent degree of functionality, as suggested earlier in the thread, is theoretically an alternative approach, but it would be far more work and probably quite impractical to achieve an acceptable degree of compatibility. That would certainly qualify as 'reinventing the wheel'.
No one is arguing that BBC4W and Napoleon are more advanced / more compatible BBC BASIC than Brandy BASIC V (SDL). The point is that we have something working that is portable and lets each BASIC that binds to the BBC API another twist on language. What's wrong with BBC
Old School Graphics being a theme for the library? Lets get the Brandy SDL graphics compatible and then worry about making it faster / better. Not many are going to bitch about a second or two either way. BASIC should stand for
easy to use and should hide the uglies under the covers for more qualified to maintain.
By finding the courage to be ourselves, we gain the power to make a difference.
-- Lindsey Stirling --