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#tinybasic — Public Fediverse posts

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  1. 👀

    now this is some arcane magicks...

    Tiny BASIC for the RCA 1802!

    retrotechnology.com/memship/ms

    cosmacelf.com/software/tbsourc

    may have some joy structuring the eternal meandering for a 2K Tiny BASIC around this processor's implementation.

    with 16 general purpose registers, the 1802 seems to better resemble the AVR microcontroller architecture than other examples we have dug up.

    so far we know of:

    6502, 8080, Z80, x86, and now the RCA 1802 assembly implementations of Tiny BASIC.

    #tinybasic #basic #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #permacomputing

  2. 👀

    now this is some arcane magicks...

    Tiny BASIC for the RCA 1802!

    retrotechnology.com/memship/ms

    cosmacelf.com/software/tbsourc

    may have some joy structuring the eternal meandering for a 2K Tiny BASIC around this processor's implementation.

    with 16 general purpose registers, the 1802 seems to better resemble the AVR microcontroller architecture than other examples we have dug up.

    so far we know of:

    6502, 8080, Z80, x86, and now the RCA 1802 assembly implementations of Tiny BASIC.

    #tinybasic #basic #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #permacomputing

  3. 👀

    now this is some arcane magicks...

    Tiny BASIC for the RCA 1802!

    retrotechnology.com/memship/ms

    cosmacelf.com/software/tbsourc

    may have some joy structuring the eternal meandering for a 2K Tiny BASIC around this processor's implementation.

    with 16 general purpose registers, the 1802 seems to better resemble the AVR microcontroller architecture than other examples we have dug up.

    so far we know of:

    6502, 8080, Z80, x86, and now the RCA 1802 assembly implementations of Tiny BASIC.

    #tinybasic #basic #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #permacomputing

  4. 👀

    now this is some arcane magicks...

    Tiny BASIC for the RCA 1802!

    retrotechnology.com/memship/ms

    cosmacelf.com/software/tbsourc

    may have some joy structuring the eternal meandering for a 2K Tiny BASIC around this processor's implementation.

    with 16 general purpose registers, the 1802 seems to better resemble the AVR microcontroller architecture than other examples we have dug up.

    so far we know of:

    6502, 8080, Z80, x86, and now the RCA 1802 assembly implementations of Tiny BASIC.

    #tinybasic #basic #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #permacomputing

  5. 👀

    now this is some arcane magicks...

    Tiny BASIC for the RCA 1802!

    retrotechnology.com/memship/ms

    cosmacelf.com/software/tbsourc

    may have some joy structuring the eternal meandering for a 2K Tiny BASIC around this processor's implementation.

    with 16 general purpose registers, the 1802 seems to better resemble the AVR microcontroller architecture than other examples we have dug up.

    so far we know of:

    6502, 8080, Z80, x86, and now the RCA 1802 assembly implementations of Tiny BASIC.

    #tinybasic #basic #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #permacomputing

  6. Thinking about string arrays in BASIC in connection with this display text editor.

    Ordinarily, a string array would be defined as, e.g. L$(25).

    This would take the place of the text buffer of the editor. Every line n is represented by L$(n).

    A FOR loop could be used to print the buffer.

    There should be variables to track the cursor, and it would point within a substring of L$(n).

    This looks a lot like EDIT.BAS. I think one improvement could be a kind of 'word editor', where the cursor over some string bounded by spaces could select that string and allow editing of it without having to reproduce the whole line.

    #basic #retrocomputing #arduino #TinyBASIC

  7. work has been proceeding on an original text editor written in Tiny BASIC.

    the idea is to produce a type in text editor, printed on paper.

    --

    one small wrinkle--GET is non-blocking on the microcontroller setup, but not within the POSIX development environment version.

    here is a small code snippet:

    --

    paste.sr.ht/~vidak/54699878e10

    #basic #retrocomputing #arduino #tinybasic

  8. I stumbled online across the manual for Sinclair 4K BASIC for the ZX80, which brought back memories of using a friend's ZX80 or ZX81. While most people bought it for the price, its Tiny BASIC had some clever ideas: troypress.com/sinclair-4k-basi #TinyBASIC #Retrocomputing

  9. okay!

    the text editor is beginning to croak back into life!

    this is a 100-ish line text editor written in Altair BASIC

    i have corrected and adapted the program to run on this Tiny BASIC, which runs on virtually every micro-controller board available in the west:

    github.com/slviajero/tinybasic

    what happens in this video is:

    1. a text file is loaded at the INPUT prompt

    2. the file is read into memory with "R"

    3. the file paged through with "N"

    4. individual lines for editing are listed with "L"

    please see the following source code:

    git.sr.ht/~vidak/peoples-perma

    #permacomputing #retrocomputing #retro #basic #tinybasic #vintagecomputing #programming

  10. This #TinyBasic port also runs successfully on the #HP200LX palmtop. It wound up as a 2,799 byte .COM file. Added the ability to LOAD and SAVE the program source, and BYE to quit the interpreter.

    Source and a prebuilt COM file here, if you would like to try on your own hardware.
    gitlab.cs.washington.edu/fidel
    Careful, it may still have bugs!

  11. The #pasmo assembler has this really neat feature where it'll accept #z80 opcodes and then do its best to emit equivalent #Intel8086 instructions. Effectively, this is the "assembly-level" forward compatibility that Intel advertised for migrating code from 8080 to 8086.

    It certainly isn't perfect - a few instructions are unimplemented and have to be manually fixed, and I'm not sure I've caught all the subtle bugs where flags behave differently ... but, here's Palo Alto TinyBasic running on #MartyPC under DOS, in only a few hours work!

    #retrocomputing #basic #TinyBasic

  12. The #pasmo assembler has this really neat feature where it'll accept #z80 opcodes and then do its best to emit equivalent #Intel8086 instructions. Effectively, this is the "assembly-level" forward compatibility that Intel advertised for migrating code from 8080 to 8086.

    It certainly isn't perfect - a few instructions are unimplemented and have to be manually fixed, and I'm not sure I've caught all the subtle bugs where flags behave differently ... but, here's Palo Alto TinyBasic running on #MartyPC under DOS, in only a few hours work!

    #retrocomputing #basic #TinyBasic

  13. The #pasmo assembler has this really neat feature where it'll accept #z80 opcodes and then do its best to emit equivalent #Intel8086 instructions. Effectively, this is the "assembly-level" forward compatibility that Intel advertised for migrating code from 8080 to 8086.

    It certainly isn't perfect - a few instructions are unimplemented and have to be manually fixed, and I'm not sure I've caught all the subtle bugs where flags behave differently ... but, here's Palo Alto TinyBasic running on #MartyPC under DOS, in only a few hours work!

    #retrocomputing #basic #TinyBasic

  14. The #pasmo assembler has this really neat feature where it'll accept #z80 opcodes and then do its best to emit equivalent #Intel8086 instructions. Effectively, this is the "assembly-level" forward compatibility that Intel advertised for migrating code from 8080 to 8086.

    It certainly isn't perfect - a few instructions are unimplemented and have to be manually fixed, and I'm not sure I've caught all the subtle bugs where flags behave differently ... but, here's Palo Alto TinyBasic running on #MartyPC under DOS, in only a few hours work!

    #retrocomputing #basic #TinyBasic

  15. The #pasmo assembler has this really neat feature where it'll accept #z80 opcodes and then do its best to emit equivalent #Intel8086 instructions. Effectively, this is the "assembly-level" forward compatibility that Intel advertised for migrating code from 8080 to 8086.

    It certainly isn't perfect - a few instructions are unimplemented and have to be manually fixed, and I'm not sure I've caught all the subtle bugs where flags behave differently ... but, here's Palo Alto TinyBasic running on #MartyPC under DOS, in only a few hours work!

    #retrocomputing #basic #TinyBasic

  16. Am I suddenly working on a procedurally generated game? Maybe!
    Anyway, here are some names. For people, planets, or whatever.
    #MailStation #TinyBasic

  17. #MailStation #TinyBasic program of the day: Hangman!

    I wanted something that would exercise my hacked-in "strings" support. Seems to work well enough for a word game!

    Source listing (21 lines): gitlab.cs.washington.edu/fidel

    #basic #retrocomputing

  18. In this later line of #TinyBasic Star Trek, what looks like a character input is actually a jump table managed by the same expression-evaluation trick. The "S" command starts on line 220, "G" on line 180, and so on. I actually think this is a tighter way of writing this kind of handler code than a more conventional if-else tree mapping an input$'s first character to possible commands.

  19. Looking at Line 5-10 of this #Basic Star Trek listing confused the heck out of me. This listing was written by Li-Chen Wang for use in his own #TinyBasic.

    archive.org/details/1976-07-pe

    Here is the confusing part, expanded out to multiple lines and modern syntax for the benefit of today's readers.

    Y=2999
    INPUT "DO YOU WANT A DIFFICULT GAME? (Y OR N)",A
    IF A=Y THEN Y=999

    Without support for string input, how the heck can the program accept "Y or N" from the user?

    Answer: In this dialect, INPUT accepts not just numbers, but expressions. Single characters (A-Z) are valid expressions and evaluate to the value in that variable. So in this program, typing "Y" sets A=2999 and typing "N" sets A=N (some uninitialized value). Then the next line checks A=Y (true if user entered "Y") and, if so, sets Y to 999 ("difficult game" value). Else, Y is left at 2999 ("easy game" value).

    Li-Chen is absolutely some kind of genius.

    #retrocomputing

  20. Here is the source code for my recent #TinyBasic and #MailStation work

    gitlab.cs.washington.edu/fidel

    • Machine code monitor and TinyBasic for Cidco MailStation (#z80 Internet Appliance)
    • The programs are small enough that a determined person can key them into the MailStation's built-in hex editor in 1 hour or less.   They run as loadable MailStation "channels".   They make it pretty fun as a self-contained mobile development platform, though you can't easily save your work. Carry pencil and paper!

    gitlab.cs.washington.edu/fidel

  21. A couple bugs squashed, #TinyBasic seems stable now on the #MailStation! How fun!

  22. The game was for a jam. After the jam, I released an improved version which you can find, along with Tiny BASIC and some other games, on my Tiny BASIC web site. tinybasic.cyningstan.org.uk/ #TinyBASIC

  23. Before I settled on making DOS games, I was briefly interested in writing compilers and interpreters. My first (and last) such project was Tiny BASIC. To demonstrate the language I implemented a few games, including Kingdom of the Lyre, a text adventure (in a language with no string variables). You can play with it at cyningstan.itch.io/kingdom-of- #TinyBASIC

  24. A Proper Computer For a Dollar? - When a tipster came to us with the line “One dollar BASIC computer”, it intrigued ... - hackaday.com/2025/08/01/a-prop #retrocomputing #computerhacks #tinybasic #basic #ch32

  25. A Proper Computer For a Dollar? - When a tipster came to us with the line “One dollar BASIC computer”, it intrigued ... - hackaday.com/2025/08/01/a-prop #retrocomputing #computerhacks #tinybasic #basic #ch32

  26. A Proper Computer For a Dollar? - When a tipster came to us with the line “One dollar BASIC computer”, it intrigued ... - hackaday.com/2025/08/01/a-prop #retrocomputing #computerhacks #tinybasic #basic #ch32

  27. A Proper Computer For a Dollar? - When a tipster came to us with the line “One dollar BASIC computer”, it intrigued ... - hackaday.com/2025/08/01/a-prop #retrocomputing #computerhacks #tinybasic #basic #ch32

  28. A Proper Computer For a Dollar? - When a tipster came to us with the line “One dollar BASIC computer”, it intrigued ... - hackaday.com/2025/08/01/a-prop #retrocomputing #computerhacks #tinybasic #basic #ch32

  29. Back live for a Saturday evening 'Eight till Late' Live Stream from 20:00 BST Continuing work on the #ProjectRio #TinyBASIC #8bit homebrew system. Hope you'll join me for a cup of tea, chat tomorrow night.
    youtube.com/live/5U5GfZGXtSk

  30. First new #RISC_OS video for a while, Exploring #RISCOS on #RaspberryPi, talking to #USB serial devices like #Ardunio boards.

    Including #TinyBASIC / #ProjectRio build on a #MEGA2560!

    #Firstlook live for channel members & all #Patreon backers

    patreon.com/posts/88026402

  31. Bit of a development this morning! This is #RISC_OS on the #raspberrypi 400 talking to a clone #8bit #Arduino Mega & running #ProjectRIO / #tinyBASIC via #CH340 USB serial driver... this might actually have a use case!

  32. So with all these #8bit new retro computer systems coming onto the market. We make our move introducing #ProjectRIO & calling time on #TinyBASIC Computers after 3 years.
    youtu.be/BqtMohv4108

    #Ad supported by @PCBWayOfficial with thanks to @SGirl0311