[HN Gopher] Show HN: BBC Basic on the ZX Spectrum Next
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Show HN: BBC Basic on the ZX Spectrum Next
        
       Author : breakintoprog
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2021-05-29 17:19 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.breakintoprogram.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.breakintoprogram.co.uk)
        
       | breakintoprog wrote:
       | Hi,
       | 
       | A quick synposis on my project:
       | 
       | The BBC Basic for Z80 kernel was written by R.T.Russell around
       | the same time as the original 6502 version that ran on the BBC
       | Micro. The CP/M version was open-sourced in 2019, and I used that
       | core BASIC interpreter in a homebrew computer, with the CP/M code
       | stripped out.
       | 
       | A few weeks ago after a chance conversation on social media, I
       | decided to port it again to the ZX Spectrum Next (a modern
       | reincarnation of the original ZX Spectrum). Whilst it's another
       | Z80-based system, the challenge would be to add in all missing
       | features from the core language such as an editor, graphics,
       | sound, file IO, and so on.
       | 
       | The link above is to my blog, which I'll be updating on a
       | regular(ish) basis with insights into the code. I'll also be
       | updating the Git project page (link to the project in the post)
       | with source code and executable 'nex' files that can be run on a
       | Spectrum Next (or clone), on a MiSTer FPGA running the ZX Next
       | core, or in a Next emulator such as ZEsarUX or CSPect.
       | 
       | Why am I doing this? I think BBC Basic is the best-in-class of
       | its peers. It's performant, and has many modern language
       | features. It's also a pretty cool way to get to grips with the
       | Next hardware. I'm really enjoying working on this. The Spectrum
       | Next is the 8-bit micro I wish I'd had back in the 80s, and the
       | project is interesting, and something I can continuously improve
       | upon.
       | 
       | Hope you enjoy!
        
         | sedatk wrote:
         | BBC BASIC was unmatched because of its built-in assembler. I
         | wish that feature was more common among BASIC interpreters back
         | then.
        
           | breakintoprog wrote:
           | Indeed! R.T.Russel's Z80 version also includes a built-in Z80
           | assembler that works in exactly the same way. Being able to
           | inline assembler with BASIC was a stroke of genius, and many
           | developers of the day relied upon it to assemble their code.
           | I've extended the Next version to include the Next-specific
           | Z80N opcodes such as NEXTREG and PIXELAD.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-05-29 23:00 UTC)