There have been variations on BASIC that use labels since at least the '80s.
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
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And this one is mine. Built on the ideas that I thought would be cool.
Yep. I remember moving from the C128 to the Amiga and go ooh.
Still cool that OP is coding their own BASIC interpreter though.
Thanks Whaleross, I don't know why some people have to look a gift horse in the mouth.
And variable names, too ... not sure why OP is reinventing the wheel here.
Why doesn't [thing I'm not aware of] exist?
If only there were some way to discover information.
Learning experience?
Because I did not have a wheel of my own? Because I wanted to?
But you can already use the wheel. You could build a better mousetrap, but instead, you made something else, but with fewer features.
OP why would we want this, compared to all the other versions of BASIC with labels?
yeah, that elevator pitch is BASIC as we've known it for 25 years. it has some other neat QOL features though like the C-style string printing
I use BWBasic as well - but this has source code so I can modify it.
Maybe you don't want it, that's fine. I developed it for myself, but since I enjoy Free Open Source software, I am giving it away to anyone who would like to play with it.
As you are promoting it as something new I was hoping you would tell me about the unique aspects, advantages, or differences from existing options.
It is less structured than bwbasic can be - it still uses goto and call (gosub) and If statments that can only goto someplace (not structured If statements) No case / switch statement yet. It is not as complete in the function area as it could be. It is still a work in progress. - The most unique things are lines you goto/call can be labeled - variables can have long names not just A1 B C7 etc. index, done, the keyword LET is required (for parsing reasons)
btw... I am not Betty.. just sayin.
How does it compare to Gambas? https://gambaswiki.org/website/en/main.html
It is not a "visual basic", the code is less complicated, the interpreter is smaller and easier to change, and you get the source code (you do for Gambas too, but Gambas is way more complex)
String arrays are a must, and you'll have to be able to keep open several different files at once. How about DATA/READ/RESTORE statements?
I will consider those, thanks for the input. - I have constrained myself: Each statement starts with a unique letter, just to make parsing a tiny bit easier. Also so far I don't have file input - only output to files - for printing on a printer or sending to gnuplot perhaps. That does not mean I can't have an OPEN "filename",r to replace stdin temporarily.
Quick complete parsing of a fixed set of keywords can easily be done with a finite state automaton.
for string arrays -- MAT $BOX(3,5) == 15 CHARACTERS OR 15 STRINGS ? I think it does the latter already. Note, I am nearly 70 years old - I got "help" coding this. (oh noe here comes a storm)
MAT [dollar]BOX(3,5) should give a two-dimensional array of strings, of course.
Good I think that is the case.
Actually, it was not the case, but it is the case now.
"Mat $strings(400)" gives you $strings(0) .. $strings(399) just like C, You can do two dimensonal strig arrays also. Please look over the remaining unused letters and let me know how you would integrate DATA statement. Remember, I am keeping the first letter unique.