BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
bbcbasic.co.uk
BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
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Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#2What things would be the most fun, most edifying, and most hacky to do with these?
Any blog or book recommendations?
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#3If you're teaching 10 year old kids to code, is there an advantage to using something like this over Python or JavaScript?
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#4The killer features of BBC Basic for me were:
- instant-on - you turned on the power switch at the back of the BBC Micro, got the double beep, and in less than a second were dropped into a REPL / shell with the language
- integrated assembler - you could inline assembly language really easily
- great documentation - before the web, documentation meant books - of which there were many - but also crucially in the BBC Micro's case also many television shows from the BBC.
- direct access to hardware - I realise this isn't BBC Basic itself really, but being able to PEEK and POKE (well, use ? and ! operators) to memory-mapped hardware addresses was great fun, and a great way to learn about how things worked.
The nostalgia for me around the language is strong, but without the hardware platform I'm not sure I'd want to go back to it.
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#5What things would be the most fun, most edifying, and most hacky to do with these? Any blog or book recommendations?
LLVM !
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#6What things would be the most fun, most edifying, and most hacky to do with these? Any blog or book recommendations?
https://www.bbcmicrobot.com/learn/index.html might help (discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25569146)
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#7The killer features of BBC Basic for me were: - instant-on - you turned on the power switch at the back of the BBC Micro, got the double beep, and in less than a second were dropped into a REPL / shell with the language - integrated assembler - you could inline assembly language really easily - great documentation - before the web, documentation meant books - of which there were many - but also crucially in the BBC M…
> instant-on
Sometimes replaced with a smoke screen at this age: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU55-7dWMi0
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#8The killer features of BBC Basic for me were: - instant-on - you turned on the power switch at the back of the BBC Micro, got the double beep, and in less than a second were dropped into a REPL / shell with the language - integrated assembler - you could inline assembly language really easily - great documentation - before the web, documentation meant books - of which there were many - but also crucially in the BBC M…
Possibly this would be more up your alley in that case: http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/.
I must admit, I feel somewhat similarly to you. I want to prod at the hardware and write some assembly code. Whereas if I wanted to work with SDL there are better ways for me to do that.
With that being said, BBC Basic was a great entry point into programming for a lot of people and it's perhaps the case that it could still be so, so I do appreciate the fact this project exists.
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#9The killer features of BBC Basic for me were: - instant-on - you turned on the power switch at the back of the BBC Micro, got the double beep, and in less than a second were dropped into a REPL / shell with the language - integrated assembler - you could inline assembly language really easily - great documentation - before the web, documentation meant books - of which there were many - but also crucially in the BBC M…
Possibly this would be more up your alley in that case: http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/ . I must admit, I feel somewhat similarly to you. I want to prod at the hardware and write some assembly code. Whereas if I wanted to work with SDL there are better ways for me to do that. With that being said, BBC Basic was a great entry point into programming for a lot of people and it's perhaps the case that it could still be so,…
https://virtual.bbcmic.ro/ is the full experience (clack clack clack)
Re: BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced
#10If you're teaching 10 year old kids to code, is there an advantage to using something like this over Python or JavaScript?
Even today, BASIC is a much simpler language than Python or JavaScript, which ought to make it easier to learn. It would also be a bit easier to transition to a more advanced language like Go/Rust if starting from BASIC than Python/JS.