SATURN BASIC for HP-48G/G+/GX, HP-49G and HP-49G+/50G

[HrastProgrammer]

New 48K version 1.6 has been uploaded.

The most important feature in this version is the debugger with an integrated trace mode.

(*) TRON/TROFF statements
(*) SST (single-step)
(*) BEEP statement
(*) PAD statement
(*) STATE statement
(*) FIND function
(*) HEX function
+ some small enhancements as usual.

More info in the manual ...

[HrastProgrammer]

New 48K version 1.7 with printer support has been uploaded.

(*) PRINT statement
(*) PRINT TO statement
(*) DISP TO statement
(*) LIST statement
(*) TAB statement renamed to COL
(*) TAB function
(*) WIRE statement
(*) IRED statement

Refer to the manual for more info. I tested wire printing with my RedEye Printer Emulator and with HP82240B Printer Simulator from Christoph Giesselink. Unfortunately, I don't have a real HP82240 printer and couldn't test IR printing.

TAB has been renamed to COL in both 32K and 48K versions - this won't affect tokenized programs and the renamed statement will automatically show as COL.

And a rather serious bug occurring under some borderline MEMORY FULL conditions has been fixed in both versions ...

[Gene]

Hrast, you just keep making this better and better. Bravo!

[HrastProgrammer]

Thanks, Gene ...

I am really enjoying developing it (and using it, too) ... Trying to squeeze every possible byte and CPU cycle is my favourite hobby since the good old days

[HrastProgrammer]

New 48K version 1.8 has been uploaded.

It's all about keyboard in this version:

(*) Keyboard User Mode
(*) ASSIGN statement
(*) CAT 0 statement

Refer to the manual for more info about user mode and keyboard assignments.

Furthermore, Left/Right/Alpha Shift behaviour has been changed slightly - you can use them in two ways now:

(1) Press-and-hold Left, Right or Alpha Shift while pressing other keys (this is the current behaviour)

(2) Press-and-release Left, Right or Alpha Shift and then press another key (use ON key to cancel active Left, Right or Alpha Shift if needed)

No 32K version changes this time.

Edit: I fixed a bug introduced in version 1.8 where interpreter could freeze in case of SYNTAX ERROR or MEMORY FULL in program mode. Please, download the latest version.

[HrastProgrammer]

New 48K version 1.9 has been uploaded.

It's all about serial communication in this version:

(*) RECV function
(*) RECV(0) function
(*) RECVB function
(*) RECVD function
(*) SEND statement
(*) HANDS statement
(*) READY statement
(*) OPEN statement
(*) CLOSE statement
(*) New error messages (TIMEOUT, TRANSMIT ERROR and RECEIVE ERROR)

Refer to the manual for more info about serial communication.

[HrastProgrammer]

New 48K version 2.0 has been uploaded.

Various features have been added in this version:

(*) Global variables
(*) Statement abbreviations
(*) AGAIN statement
(*) START statement
(*) TEXT programs + appropriate CAT and NEW modifications
(*) Delete to the start of the line (Right Shift + Left Shift + Left Arrow).
(*) Delete to the end of the line (Right Shift + Left Shift + Right Arrow).
(*) ERROR statement enhancements (added [<ErrorCode>] for displaying a specified error message)

Refer to the manual for more info about the above features.

About TEXT programs:

Those special TEXT programs contain raw ASCII text instead of tokenized/compiled BASIC programs. They do nothing when executed and can be used as scratchpad or notepad, for example. But, the main idea behind them is to use the editor to edit FORTH programs because I plan to continue working on HRAST-FORTH and eventually incorporate it into HRAST-BASIC environment. When I started developing HRAST-FORTH long time ago I didn't have a suitable editor and environment for what I wanted to achieve. Now I have everything I need for this

A few important bugfixes as well (some of them rather serious):

(*) Substring postfix operator not working properly - for example, ? "123"(2) & "456"(2) produced an error.
(*) Substring postfix operator not working with 2 or more character variable names - for example, A1(2) produced an error.
(*) Executing END would show MISMATCH or NOT ALLOWED followed by garbage under some circumstances
(*) COMP statement leaving stacks in corrupted state
(*) Decompile of functions without arguments adds unnecessary space after the function name - for example, TICKS +1 instead of TICKS+1
(*) Shift/Alpha keys will terminate WAIT (bug introduced in v1.9 and still remained in early v2.0)
(*) Some DATA corrections (empty DATA statement not allowed anymore)
(*) Some internal DISP corrections
(*) Some internal PRINT corrections

New 32K version 1.01 with ERROR enhancements and various bugfixes from the last few months has been uploaded, too ...

[HrastProgrammer]

New 48K version 2.1 has been uploaded.

It's all about complex numbers in this version and HRAST-BASIC now supports COMPLEX arguments for all (transcendental and other) functions and operators where this does have sense.

Furthermore, ZERO statement has been added and two bugs in regard to complex numbers and power operator have been fixed in this version - they are so stupid that I am ashamed to admit they even existed Those bugs are fixed in 32K version as well.

Incompatibility notes (for both 32K and 48K versions):

(1) READ operator has now been changed from ">" to "=" (without quotes, of course) so if you used it in your programs (I doubt anyone ever used it) then change it from ">" to "=" (without quotes, of course) where needed.

(2) SQRT has been renamed to SQR - this doesn't affect existing programs because they are tokenized but you have to take this into account when entering programs from source code.

(3) RAND has been renamed to RND - this doesn't affect existing programs because they are tokenized but you have to take this into account when entering programs from source code. What does affect existing programs is that I modified RND functionality - it now returns random value between 0 and the argument specified. In case of INTEGER argument the result will be an INTEGER as well, otherwise the result will be REAL.

[HrastProgrammer]

New 48K version 2.2 has been uploaded.

It's all about graphics mode in this version:

(*) DRAW statement
(*) LINE statement
(*) MOVE statement
(*) PLOT statement
(*) PIXEL function
(*) XDIM function
(*) YDIM function
(*) XPOS function
(*) YPOS function

At first I didn't intend to support graphics but it really provides a lot of added value to the interpreter, so I decided to pull the trigger.

Example:

Code:


CLS
INTEGER H=YDIM/2,W=<XDIM
LINE W,H TO 0,H
REAL X=0,S=2*PI/XDIM
FOR I=0 TO W
DRAW I,H*>SIN X REM PLOT I,H*>SIN X
X+S NEXT

Furthermore, some printing bugs have been fixed and two general purpose functions added: TYPE and VARTYPE.

This is probably the last "feature-oriented" HRAST-BASIC version. I don't plan to add any new features to the interpreter anymore because it now has everything I need. Of course, I will release bugfixes when required.

As far as the development is concerned, I will now concentrate more on HRAST-FORTH and the possible integration of FORTH into BASIC environment ...

[Sukiari]

Forth on the 48 series platform.

You're a madman. I expect you'll make it nice and fast too.

[HrastProgrammer]

Yes, I intend to make it as fast as possible. That's why I am experimenting with subroutine threading and some other optimizations. In fact, HRAST-BASIC has a lot of FORTH-like code inside which makes it very fast

[HrastProgrammer]

The other day I added HRAST-BASIC to the "List of BASIC Dialects" on Wikipedia:

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

... together with the link to this thread. I thought it could be nice to have it there, nothing else.

In just a few hours some "Alexf" creature jumped out of nowhere, deleted what I've added (it is still visible in "View history"), because it was classified as SPAM, and blocked my account indefinitely. Oh well ...

Not that I care much about Wikipedia but I have always explicitly avoided anything what can be even remotely recognized as SPAM. That's why I make only one announcement for every creation I ever made, and only on related forum(s), I don't periodically remind anyone, I don't send promotional mails, don't mention my software in every other thread, etc.

But, let it be, if Wikipedia "experts" say it is SPAM then who am I to argue about that ...

[Pekis]

Hello,

Nice work and at last some interest in BASIC

For the fun, please have a look at the Pocket CHIP running VICE (Commodore 64 emulator), letting you edit, load and save BASIC programs (and games):

VICE on Pocket CHIP

[HrastProgrammer]

Yes, that Pocket CHIP is really nice.

As far as those small Linux boards are concerned - I am currently enjoying DSP development on Raspberry Pi 3 a lot ...

[Vtile]

Your infinite ban should be lifted and reconsidered by alexf. I may suggest that if you retype your information to that list on wikipedia, search a bit how to make that superscript source notation. Your entry were / is a self-promoting after all since your interpreter is published as commercial product etc. (shareware.).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Hrastprogrammer

[HrastProgrammer]

Yes, and all other BASICs on that list are free, all those Microsoft BASIC derivatives, for example.

Thanks for the suggestion but I won't retype anything there, it is not worth the trouble. This case is closed, as far as I am concerned.

[Vtile]

Drama .. it is real.

Anyway I think your point of commercial products of this case were the reason he / she lifted your ban after I suggested it were grose considering the wiki article (at the bottom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Alexf

[HrastProgrammer]

I surely didn't ask for this drama ... If I knew it would cause such trouble I wouldn't post the bloody link in the first place.

[HrastProgrammer]

Anyway, thank you very much for your nice words on Wikipedia, much appreciated

[Vtile]

No problem at all, I truely think that it were unjustified ban. While I somehow understand those wikipedia actives.