Cbasic

[Milli]

I’ve been tinkering with cbasic under cpm. It creates some nice code and it’s relocatable. I believe with a header file I can create a ColecoVision game using cbasic. It won’t be able to use the I/O commands (print, input) or the file commands since these rely on CPM but the rest should be usable and you can access CV ROM routines via the call command.

[Milli]

I'm actually using CB80 which was an upgraded version of CBasic. I have upload a zip file with the compiler, linker and the manuals to the archive at: http://adamarchive.org/archive/CPM/CB80.zip

I have yet to determine how to add assembly language routines to it but so far I really like the way it works. Here is a sample of a game I am working on that is in CB80

Code: Select all

        randomize
        dim board$(21)
        ESC$ = chr$(27)
        CLS$ = chr$(26)
        CLEOL$ = chr$(24)
        BKS$ = chr$(8)
        GOR$ = chr$(12)
        HOME$ = chr$(30)
        DMODE$ = chr$(2)
        BMODE$ = chr$(1)
        SPINNER% = 1

        width% = 80
        x% = 15
        y% = 11
        ox% = -1
        oy% = -1

        def FN.CENTER(a$)
            w% = int(width% - len(a$)) / 2
            while w%
                  print GOR$;
                  w% = w% - 1
            wend
            print a$;
            FN.CENTER = 0
        fend

        def FN.SPINNER
            print BKS$;mid$("\|/-",SPINNER%,1);
            SPINNER% = SPINNER% + 1
            if SPINNER% = 5 then SPINNER% = 1
            FN.SPINNER = 0
        fend

        gosub ShowTitle
        gosub NewBoard
        print CLS$;
Loop:
        gosub UpdatePlayer
        gosub ShowBoard
        gosub GetMove
        if key$ = "Q" then stop
        if key$ = "U" then y% = y% - 1
        if key$ = "D" then y% = y% + 1
        if key$ = "L" then x% = x% - 1
        if key$ = "R" then x% = x% + 1
        goto Loop

ShowBoard:
        REM Home screen and display board
        print HOME$;DMODE$;
        null% = FN.CENTER("+-----------------------------+")
        print ""
        for r%=1 to 21
            null% = FN.CENTER("|"+board$(r%)+"|")
            print ""
        next r%
        null% = FN.CENTER("+-----------------------------+")
        print ""
        return

NewBoard:
        REM Create a new board
        print CLS$;"Creating board  ";
        for r%=1 to 21
            board$(r%) = ""
            for c%=1 to 29
                board$(r%) = board$(r%) + chr$(48 + int(rnd * 7) + 2)
            next c%
            null% = FN.SPINNER
        next r%
        print ""
        return

ShowTitle:    
        REM Title screen and instructions
        print CLS$:print:print:print
        null% = FN.CENTER("Greed")
        print:print:print
        null% = FN.CENTER("Press any key to begin...")
        gosub WaitKey
        return

MoveCursor:
        REM Move cursor to x%,y%
        print ESC$;"=";chr$(32 + y%);chr$(32 + x% + (width% / 4));BMODE$;"@";
        return

WaitKey:
        REM Wait for a key and return it in key$. Also modifies the RND seed
        null% = rnd * 4
        if constat% = 0 then goto WaitKey
        key$ = chr$(inkey)
        return

UpdatePlayer:
        REM Update player in the board
        if ox% <> -1 then \
            board$(oy%) = left$(board$(oy%),ox% - 1)+ " " + mid$(board$(oy%),ox% + 1,40)
        ox% = x%
        oy% = y%
        board$(y%) = left$(board$(y%),x% - 1)+ "@" + mid$(board$(y%),x% + 1,40)
        return

GetMove:
        REM Determine possible moves and get players input returned in key$
        pos$ = ""
        if y% > 1 and mid$(board$(y% - 1),x%,1) <> " " then pos$ = pos$ + "U,"
        if y% < 21 and mid$(board$(y% + 1),x%,1) <> " " then pos$ = pos$ + "D,"
        if x% > 1 and mid$(board$(y%),x% - 1,1) <> " " then pos$ = pos$ + "L,"
        if x% < 29 and mid$(board$(y%),x% + 1,1) <> " " then pos$ = pos$ + "R,"
        pos$ = pos$ + "Q"
        print CLEOL$;pos$;" ? ";

GetMoveLoop:
        gosub WaitKey
        key$ = ucase$(key$)
        if match(key$,pos$,1) <> 0 and key$ <> "," then print key$:return
        goto GetMoveLoop

[joltguy]

Very nice code! Really clean and well structured which is not something that can be said about a lot of BASIC programs.

It is pretty cool to have a compiler for BASIC. Thanks for uploading it to the archive... I've downloaded and imported it into CP/M (using wrdisk + ADAM.COM) so I can mess around with it later.

[Wmaalouli]

Nice. I have never really messed with compiled Basic under CP/M since I had Turbo Pascal at may disposal.
I would be cool to see if you can get it to access the graphic and sound resources of the Adam.
My main beef with the Adam SmartBasic and variants is that it relies heavily on pokes and peeks to do anything interesting, which in my view makes the code difficult to read as well as write.

[Milli]

Nice. I have never really messed with compiled Basic under CP/M since I had Turbo Pascal at may disposal.
I would be cool to see if you can get it to access the graphic and sound resources of the Adam.
My main beef with the Adam SmartBasic and variants is that it relies heavily on pokes and peeks to do anything interesting, which in my view makes the code difficult to read as well as write.

You should do it

[Wmaalouli]

Hah! It might be an interesting challenge, but I have way too much on my plate currently to even consider it. That said, if there is a way to embed machine language in CBASIC, then it should be relatively trivial to add the extensions since the routines already exist with my TP3 extensions.
Can CBASIC use external modules?

[Milli]

Hah! It might be an interesting challenge, but I have way too much on my plate currently to even consider it. That said, if there is a way to embed machine language in CBASIC, then it should be relatively trivial to add the extensions since the routines already exist with my TP3 extensions.
Can CBASIC use external modules?

Yes it can use REL files. I have yet to figure it out. It doesn't have a CALL or USR function that lets you jump to an ML address. From what I can determine when you compile a module to an REL file it somehow knows labels and then you can use the CALL function to jump to the code. It is confusing.