BASIC computer language

[Enoff]

I have been messing around with old DOS and Apple II emulators and got the crazy idea to figure out the old BASIC to perhaps make some simple programs that would run in these emulators. I found an interesting article in one of the old White Dwarf magazines about programming a character gen for Traveller in BASIC. It has the old program typed out, I have a pdf copy but some of the info is a bit blurred. Also its a BASIC for the Sinclair ZX81, but I see now doing a quick google search there is an emulator that I could try it on.

There are some great old Apple II Traveller programs, it would be fun if possible to reverse engineer them to figure out how people were programming these things. I don't think the Apple ones are compiled so it might be possible to look at the coding.

I guess there are some current applications to compile modern BASIC into apps for Android, I wonder how well this works.

 

[Enoff]

Funny bit of trivial I found out is that Jerry Pournelle, the author who collaborated with Larry Niven to write "Mote in the God's Eye", a novel that I believe had some impact on Traveller, claims he programmed the famous Apple Trek. A Star Trek variant game that was available on the Apple II. I guess he programmed it in Integer BASIC, a variant of BASIC written by Steve Wozniak.

You can play it here
http://www.virtualapple.org/appletrekdisk.html

 

[Adam Dray]

Google "apple II emulator" and you'll find numerous ways to run Apple II programs directly. I assume some of them can run Apple Basic (FP or Int).

 

[robject]

A couple years ago, on a lark, I started writing a text-based Traveller trade program using Commodore Basic.

I got as far as coding in ship data and the Regina subsector, reading in the selected ship and loading the subsector, and routines for things like calculating jump distance, but didn't get to the run loop. If I had less interesting things to do in my spare time, or if I knew I could finish it up quickly, I'd work on it.

 

[Enoff]

Yes I have AppleWin on my PC and cAndy Apple on my Android tablet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleWin

http://www.zerohoh.com/candyapple

 

[Enoff]

There are some modern apps to program BASIC on Android, I think the iOS is locked up and they don't want anything other than what Apple sells.

 

[robject]

There are some modern apps to program BASIC on Android, I think the iOS is locked up and they don't want anything other than what Apple sells.

CBM Hand Basic for iOS runs Commodore BASIC programs, and the programs can be imported/exported via iTunes. But no, you can't write iOS apps on them. You can run BASIC programs in the program itself, though.

 

[inexorabletash]

And then there's http://calormen.com/jsbasic which I wrote so you could run GDW's Traveller software written in BASIC in your browser.

 

[aramis]

There are some modern apps to program BASIC on Android, I think the iOS is locked up and they don't want anything other than what Apple sells.

It's possible to get basic compiled to work on iDevices - but it's a nasty bit of hoop jumping.

So is loading an emulator - because Apple doesn't like to allow emulators on the iTunes store.

 

[Enoff]

And then there's http://calormen.com/jsbasic which I wrote so you could run GDW's Traveller software written in BASIC in your browser.

Oh Wow! Impressive!

 

[robject]

And then there's http://calormen.com/jsbasic which I wrote so you could run GDW's Traveller software written in BASIC in your browser.

SWEET.

Yes, that one word is worth a post. What, it's not? Alas. Well ok then: it's AppleSoft BASIC, which means some genius ought to make a Commodore BASIC version out of it. In his ample spare time. What's everybody looking at me for?

 

[Enoff]

It's possible to get basic compiled to work on iDevices - but it's a nasty bit of hoop jumping.

So is loading an emulator - because Apple doesn't like to allow emulators on the iTunes store.

Yes I lucked out grabbing PowerDos before they pulled it, to run on my old iPad1.

 

[robject]

@Joshua: so tell me, do you know how much of vanilla (sans graphics and sound) Commodore BASIC 2.0 is also in Apple ][ BASIC? Who would know?

 

[inexorabletash]

Both were licensed from Microsoft, based on its 6502 BASIC. So: should be very similar.

 

[agorski]

There are some modern apps to program BASIC on Android, I think the iOS is locked up and they don't want anything other than what Apple sells.

I've written my Mac apps in Xojo (nee RealBasic) and am currently working on an iOS app in Xojo. It's a modern object-oriented programming language with Basic-like syntax. You can download the IDE for free and run programs in the IDE without buying a license.