Files
gw-basic-2026/docs/development.md
Eremey Valetov c317d683fb Compiler: accept unnumbered programs, fix string concat in PRINT
Three fixes that lift seven test programs from skipped to passing,
bringing the AOT compiler harness from 56/56 to 63/63.

- Unnumbered programs (compiler_main.c): src/compiler_main.c skipped
  any line that didn't start with a digit, so direct-mode .bas files
  like hello.bas, math_ops.bas, string_ops.bas (no line numbers)
  failed with "No program lines found".  load_file now auto-assigns
  line numbers (last_num + 10) to unnumbered lines, with overflow
  protection at line 65520.

- String concatenation in PRINT (codegen.c): emit_str_atom had a
  broken concat loop that emitted "; _cat = gw_str_concat(&...
  _cat.sval ...)" — _cat was never declared, so any program with a
  string-literal concat in PRINT (like PRINT "ABC" + "DEF") failed
  to link.  Concat is properly handled by emit_str_expr's outer
  loop; remove the dead/broken code in the atom.  Fixes
  string_ops.bas.

- Transcendental result type (codegen.c): peek_expr_type returned
  VT_DBL for ATN/LOG/EXP/VAL, so PRINT formatted them with 15-digit
  double precision (e.g. 3.141592653589793) while real GW-BASIC and
  the interpreter format the single-precision result as 3.141593.
  Real GW-BASIC's transcendentals are single-precision; only CDBL
  forces double.  Demote ATN/LOG/EXP/VAL to VT_SNG; CDBL stays
  VT_DBL.  Fixes math_ops.bas.

Also: tests/run_compiler_tests.sh now runs the compiled binary from
the project root rather than the tempdir where it was built, so
test programs that reference tests/programs/ via relative paths
(chain_test, common_test, run_file, misc_stmts) resolve their
targets.  Earlier I'd misdiagnosed those failures as ON ERROR
divergence — they were just CWD-dependent path lookups.

Doc/test counts: 56 → 63 in README, docs/index.md, docs/development.md,
docs/roadmap.md.  Roadmap updated to note the compiler now accepts
unnumbered programs.
2026-05-04 16:32:09 -04:00

3.4 KiB

Development

Development History

Version Commit Description
0.1.0 d8e8375 Expression calculator with direct mode
0.2.0 6162595 Variables, arrays, program storage, control flow
0.3.0 c2d73e9 File I/O, PRINT USING, SAVE/LOAD, MID$ assignment, graphics stubs
0.4.0 df5c308 CHAIN, RUN "file", random-access I/O (FIELD/PUT/GET), CVI/CVS/CVD/MKI$/MKS$/MKD$
0.5.0 ad21350 Full-screen TUI editor, KEY statement, Ctrl+Break, Sixel graphics, SOUND/BEEP/PLAY, DOSBox-X compat testing, project rename
0.6.0 ece018d DATE$/TIME$/TIMER, FILES, SHELL, CHDIR, MKDIR, RMDIR
0.7.0 da6b513 AUTO, RENUM (with GOTO/GOSUB patching), DELETE, COMMON, LIST range fix
0.8.0 c68167c Dynamic TUI screen buffer, --full flag, LPRINT/LLIST with --lpt
0.9.0 2a8f98b EDIT statement, ON TIMER/ON KEY event trapping, F-key escape parser fixes
0.10.0 Binary tokenized SAVE/LOAD, INKEY$ extended key sequences, golden-file regression tests, classic BASIC programs
0.11.0 DEF SEG / PEEK / POKE virtual memory, GET/PUT graphics sprites, PRINT USING fixes
0.12.0 BSAVE/BLOAD, TUI ANSI 16-color rendering, CGA graphics framebuffer PEEK/POKE, keyboard shift flags
0.13.0 VIEW/WINDOW/PALETTE graphics, PMAP function, MBF float format for CVS/CVD/MKS$/MKD$
0.14.0 MBF binary file compatibility (IEEE↔MBF at save/load boundary), fix binary loader null-byte truncation, fix DRAW M/S/A bugs, add TA/=var;/X substring
0.15.0 Hardware I/O simulator, gap-fill (100% token coverage), string pool + compacting GC, Jupyter kernel (Sixel graphics, INPUT, Pygments), ahead-of-time compiler Phase 1
0.16.0 AOT compiler: all eligible tests pass (100%). CHAIN/COMMON/RUN "file" via runtime delegation, token embedding, string comparison, division-by-zero detection, FIELD read-back, graphics, file I/O delegation, RNG matching, dead code elimination
0.17.0 981aeab Compiler memory safety (--warn, --safe, --safe=sanitize); 16-bit real-mode DOS target (Makefile.dos16, far-heap TUI screen buffer); 32-bit DOS/4GW target (Makefile.dos); FreeDOS 1.4 compatibility

Tests

72 automated test programs in tests/programs/, plus 4 classic interactive programs in tests/classic/ (Hamurabi, Lunar Lander, Gunner, Diamond from David Ahl's BASIC Computer Games). 14 Jupyter kernel tests. 63 compiler tests (eligible programs compiled to native executables via gwbasic-compile; run bash tests/run_compiler_tests.sh).

Run the full automated suite:

bash tests/run_tests.sh              # interpreter (72 tests)
python -m gwbasickernel.test_kernel  # Jupyter kernel (14 tests)

Each interpreter test has a 5-second timeout. 68 tests have .expected golden files for output regression detection. Tests without golden comparison: datetime, on_timer, timer_stop (timing-dependent), color_test (visual).

Compatibility Testing

Compare output against real GWBASIC.EXE running under DOSBox-X:

# Generate .expected files from GWBASIC.EXE (requires DOSBox-X Flatpak)
bash tests/run_compat.sh --generate

# Compare gwbasic output against .expected
bash tests/run_compat.sh

CI

GitHub Actions runs on every push to main and on pull requests. The workflow builds the project with PulseAudio support and runs all 72 test programs.

See .github/workflows/ci.yml.