[HN Gopher] AmiBlitz3 - a BASIC-compiler for 68k-Amiga
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       AmiBlitz3 - a BASIC-compiler for 68k-Amiga
        
       Author : doener
       Score  : 39 points
       Date   : 2022-08-29 04:06 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | dark-star wrote:
       | Do compiled programs run on an unexpanded or only slightly
       | expanded stock A500/A2000? I.e. 68000 CPU with 512k or 1M of
       | memory?
       | 
       | All the development environments I have seen for Amigas so far
       | required a 68040 CPU and 8Mb of memory... both for development
       | and for the final executables.
       | 
       | I'm still looking for something like the original AmigaBASIC for
       | OS 1.x or 2.x that can run on an unexpanded A500
        
         | xet7 wrote:
         | Try various programming languages from Aminet:
         | 
         | http://aminet.net/tree?path=dev
        
         | xet7 wrote:
         | There is also TRSE:
         | 
         | https://lemonspawn.com/turbo-rascal-syntax-error-expected-bu...
        
         | bronikowski wrote:
         | My only experience is with Blitz2, I'm sure my code ran on
         | A500/1MiB, but I never put much effort in testing because I
         | always targeted Kickstart 2.05+.
         | 
         | If you're looking for cool BASIC for A500/A600 you can't go
         | with Amos:
         | 
         | https://retrogamecoders.com/installing-amos-basic/
        
       | bronikowski wrote:
       | Spent good chunk of my Amiga life hacking in Blitz2. Good it is
       | still getting developed. One day I'll be arsed to dig out my HDD
       | image and stick it into euae.
        
       | pjmlp wrote:
       | Yet another very nice BASIC compiler, pity that very few are
       | aware that BASIC also had AOT compilers, and actually the
       | original Dartmouth BASIC used a basic kind of JIT compiler.
       | 
       | It was the 8 bit home computers that actually had to resort to
       | interpreters, given their resource constraints.
        
         | actually_a_dog wrote:
         | Yeah, and to be fair, the reason people think of BASIC as an
         | "interpreted language" is that it's been a victim of its own
         | success. Of course, there's no such thing as an interpreted
         | _language_ , because it's implementations that are compiled or
         | interpreted rather than languages themselves, but the fact that
         | in the 80s, almost every popular home computer would boot to a
         | BASIC interpreter prompt (Macintosh being the primary
         | exception) is what created that idea in peoples' minds.
         | 
         | The unfortunate thing about BASIC is that although there are
         | many and various implementations running on every common
         | computer system and OS, there's almost no portability between
         | implementations. And, in order to do anything beyond a simple,
         | text-based interface, you're going to end up way in the weeds
         | of implementation-specific functionality.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC
        
           | lproven wrote:
           | The fragmentation of BASIC was a huge problem.
           | 
           | Also, that one of the most widespread, CBM BASIC 4 on the
           | C64, was utter junk and made an entire generation of home
           | computer owners believe that BASIC was junk, period.
           | 
           | https://liam-on-linux.livejournal.com/71381.html
           | 
           | Contemporaneous with the C64 were some _excellent_ 8-bit
           | BASICs, notably BBC BASIC on the BBC Micro, but also Beta
           | BASIC on the ZX Spectrum (a 3rd party add-on) and SAM BASIC
           | on the SAM Coupe (an enhanced Spectrum compatible.)
           | 
           | But not, by and large, on any American home computers, and so
           | the large majority of people who mostly only saw, used and
           | knew American home computers didn't know and were misled into
           | believing that BASIC was rubbish.
           | 
           | And so we all got C instead.
           | 
           | And that really _is_ rubbish. A quick and dirty hack from the
           | 1970s that has created a multi-billion-dollar industry in
           | fixing leaky broken software.
        
       | rasz wrote:
       | My bit of Blitz trivia: Worms prototype (Total Wormage) was
       | developed in Blitz Basic by a high school kid.
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-30 23:02 UTC)