e7f35c21ff
Binary SAVE/LOAD: SAVE now writes tokenized binary by default (0xFF header format), matching original GW-BASIC behavior. SAVE "file",A for ASCII. LOAD auto-detects binary vs ASCII from the first byte. Command-line file loading also auto-detects, so binary .BAS files just work. INKEY$ extended keys: arrow keys, Home/End/PgUp/PgDn, Insert/Delete, and F1-F10 now return the correct CHR$(0) + scan_code two-byte sequences per the IBM PC convention. Refactored event trap key parsing to use tui_read_key() instead of duplicating escape sequence parsing. Golden-file regression tests: generated .expected output files for 55 of 58 test programs (3 timing-dependent tests excluded). The test runner now reports compat match status alongside pass/fail. Classic programs: added Hamurabi, Lunar Lander, Gunner, and Diamond from David Ahl's BASIC Computer Games (1978) in tests/classic/ for manual compatibility testing. Docs updated with compiler roadmap item and hardware I/O simulator plan.
3.2 KiB
3.2 KiB
Roadmap
The Big One
- GW-BASIC 2026 Compiler — ahead-of-time compilation of BASIC programs to native executables. Because nothing says "premature optimization" like compiling a language designed for an interpreter running on a 4.77 MHz 8088. But we've come this far, so why not? Likely approach: translate the token stream to C and lean on GCC/Clang for the heavy lifting.
Planned Features
- DEF SEG / PEEK / POKE emulation — a virtual address space for the BIOS data area and CGA screen buffer (B800:0000), so programs that directly twiddle screen memory or read the keyboard buffer actually work. Not quite cycle- accurate, but enough to run most "tricks" from the 1980s magazines.
- Hardware I/O simulator — an optional emulation layer for
OUT,INP,WAIT,MOTOR, and friends. The idea is to provide a virtual PC peripheral bus so retro programs that talk to the speaker, joystick port, or parallel interface can do something useful instead of silently no-oping. Think of it as a tiny museum exhibit for vintage BASIC hardware hacking. - BSAVE / BLOAD — binary file save/load for screen buffers and data
- PRINT USING edge cases —
**asterisk fill,**$combined, thousands separator with,, and^^^^scientific notation corner cases to match the original output formatting exactly - GET/PUT graphics — sprite capture and blit for graphics mode; the framebuffer infrastructure is already in place, this is the missing piece for any BASIC program that does animation
- TUI color support — map GW-BASIC COLOR attributes to ANSI 16-color output in the TUI screen buffer
- VIEW / WINDOW / PALETTE — graphics viewport, coordinate mapping, and palette remapping
- MBF format support for binary LOAD — convert Microsoft Binary Format float constants when loading files saved by the original GWBASIC.EXE
IDE and Notebook Integration
- Jupyter kernel for GW-BASIC — a Jupyter Notebook kernel that runs
GW-BASIC programs cell-by-cell, with rich output for
PRINT, inline graphics rendering for drawing commands, and interactiveINPUTvia notebook widgets. Similar in spirit to foxkernel. - JetBrains plugin (IntelliJ/CLion) — full-featured language plugin with
syntax highlighting, code completion, line number navigation, run
configurations, debugger integration (breakpoints via
STOP, variable inspection), structure view (line number outline), and error annotations. - VS Code extension — language extension providing syntax highlighting (TextMate grammar), snippets, run/debug tasks, integrated terminal runner, and Language Server Protocol support for diagnostics and hover info.
Known Limitations
PEEK/POKEare stubs (POKE parses and discards, PEEK returns 0)- Binary files use IEEE 754 floats, not MBF — files saved here are not byte-compatible with original GWBASIC.EXE binary format
- String garbage collection not implemented (uses
malloc/freeinstead) - Maximum 256 variables, 64 arrays, 16 FOR nesting, 24 GOSUB nesting, 16 WHILE nesting
- Hardware I/O (
OUT,INP,WAIT,COM,MOTOR) not yet implemented