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An Internet BASIC Interpreter??

CP/M User

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I wasn't sure how this could relate to Vintage Programming, though if the Moderating Team see this thread as such, then feel free to move it! :-D

What I was wondering though with BASIC being something of a dominant language in the 1980s due to the explosion of the Microcomputers was how I've never heard of anyone coming up with Generic BASIC language which will run nicely in your web browser - please by all means if anyone has done this please let me know! I though it would be great if it could be easily incorporated into other websites, could load, save & run a generic BASIC program - I dare say it might be easy to bang in a couple of flash commands which allow you to draw graphics and even better if the GOTO command was elimated and procedures used instead! :-D Though GOTO is a generic command! :-o Perhaps it should be a BBC BASIC! :-D

I say - if nothing has been done to make a BASIC interpreter which simply fits into a web browser it would be unusual due to the popularity of BASIC in the past, plus I'd imagine lots of kids would need that kind of Baseline language which is kinda easy to understand and move them onto more serious languages, though I can only guess that because there's so many languages floating around nowadays and ones which are incorporated to work within a Web browser, then perhaps they have become the standard to be the first childs programming language?
 
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I did a bit of searching myself though found a couple of things which you actually have to purchase. In terms of anybody writing a simple application which runs a generic BASIC within a web browser - there isn't any from what I can find! :-o

I guess such a process is complicated and people have moved to Emulators to bring the BASIC back - which is restrictive in a way because BASIC could indeed have a range of applications and it doesn't have to be limited to Vintage Computer groups because with a lot of people being connected to the Internet an integrated BASIC could allow people to simply load an uploaded program at the click of a mouse to run a program as well as allowing people to write programs and submit them.

BASIC nowadays seems to be very complicated and perhaps more confusing that what it was like in the 80s - it would be good to return more to the glory days of having a line number followed by the statement or 10! :-D I guess the big issue is writing it like that, making it mainstream so it's Free - I feel it could have some potential as being something which is integrated into a Web Browser.
 
ewww GOTO. i prefer not running out of stack space. SUB and FUNCTION like from QB are good.

i realized GOTO is bad and stopped using them when i was about 12 lol.
 
Visual Basic (VB) Script anyone? I think it comes both in server side and browser side flavours. But it doesn't do exactly the same stuff classic Basics did.
 
carlsson wrote:

Visual Basic (VB) Script anyone? I think it comes both in server side and browser side flavours. But it doesn't do exactly the same stuff classic Basics did.

I guess something is better than nothing - is this a program which can be incorporated into a website for anyone who wants it though?? I found a Visual BASIC Script forum which had people submitting scripts into it, though I didn't see the actual program. I guess the other issue is the actual Script program small enough for a dial-up user to download quickly?
 
More or less. VB scripting used to be the basis of classic ASP pages, thus Microsoft's own web server IIS. I believe Internet Explorer, or if it is the Office package also has built-in support for executing VBS files, although today it has almost become synonymous with viruses. So server-side scripts on ASP sites should run in any browser, while local execution will need a Microsoft browser.

Another idea would be to make a Java or other applet which is kind of an emulator where you can type in listings. There already are a bunch of various Java based emulators out there, but you may opt for something unifying, practically useful on a modern computer as opposed to the programs you wrote on your CPC, C64, ZX, TRS and so on.

I get the feeling the modern equivalent to Microsoft Basic would be Adobe Flash, although that is not neccessarily a programming environment. More like it is a development tool that lets you create fairly advanced audiovisual content with a few simple steps. You won't program a first person shooter in Flash (or maybe you do?!), just like you didn't make your own arcade class games in Basic (ok, this might have been possible).
 
carlsson wrote:

More or less. VB scripting used to be the basis of classic ASP pages, thus Microsoft's own web server IIS. I believe Internet Explorer, or if it is the Office package also has built-in support for executing VBS files, although today it has almost become synonymous with viruses. So server-side scripts on ASP sites should run in any browser, while local execution will need a Microsoft browser.

Another idea would be to make a Java or other applet which is kind of an emulator where you can type in listings. There already are a bunch of various Java based emulators out there, but you may opt for something unifying, practically useful on a modern computer as opposed to the programs you wrote on your CPC, C64, ZX, TRS and so on.

I get the feeling the modern equivalent to Microsoft Basic would be Adobe Flash, although that is not neccessarily a programming environment. More like it is a development tool that lets you create fairly advanced audiovisual content with a few simple steps. You won't program a first person shooter in Flash (or maybe you do?!), just like you didn't make your own arcade class games in Basic (ok, this might have been possible).

I'm not sure if I quite follow, yes generally nowadays everything has become more about ease and using computers, though the reality is a programmer still needs to get down on the job and write a proper program rather than pop-in some subroutines using the ruddy Mouse!!
I guess Emulators in a sense has become the standard for it if you want things like BASIC because that's what they give you, though what I'm saying is nobody has tried to build a simple BASIC interpreter which runs in a Web browser - by that I mean it being something which runs off Java, is interactive and allows people to easily run programs if they want to and allows programmers to write stuff - which could be old hat, though nobody ever complained about a game being useless!
 
As far as I'm concerned, the era of computers programmable by anyone ended more than 20 years ago, with the introduction of the 16-bits: Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and later on Microsoft Windows. Some of these computers and environments still had some form of programming language, but often well hidden and of highly limited use. From 1986 and forward, you needed to be a real enthusiast or professional to get anywhere near writing your own programs. Although the advent of Internet and web pages has sparked some interest again, I think your idea about a general purpose programming language in the browser would mainly apply to people like you and me who already are deep into the programming habit.
 
carlsson wrote:

As far as I'm concerned, the era of computers programmable by anyone ended more than 20 years ago, with the introduction of the 16-bits: Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and later on Microsoft Windows.

Heh - don't post those comments to these good folks! :-D A lot of them are -still- looking for programmers! :-D

Some of these computers and environments still had some form of programming language, but often well hidden and of highly limited use. From 1986 and forward, you needed to be a real enthusiast or professional to get anywhere near writing your own programs. Although the advent of Internet and web pages has sparked some interest again, I think your idea about a general purpose programming language in the browser would mainly apply to people like you and me who already are deep into the programming habit.

Perhaps. What I had in mind though was this Environmental Forum I go to want Environmental games and thought if they had a Simple BASIC interpreter built into it, it would allow me to submit some Educational BASIC games on there for people to play, cause I'm just not interested in starting some other new language from scratch just to Interpret some BASIC stuff for it!

I checked out the Runbasic earlier, though I feel in order for a website to have it online they'd probably want $5000 for them to host it! The program itself should be Free GNU or something similar which runs from a separate Server (don't Forums work like that?). I guess if such a program was going to be Free nobody could get paid for it and I guess there's complicated issues, however there seems to be some really good Free software available out there and I dare say it'll only be a question of time before somebody realises there could be something in it which will blow these Sharewarez out of the water!
 
GOTO is only bad if you mis-use it. There are plenty of good reasons to use GOTO.
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I believe GOSUB is the bad one. Mis-used and not used with a "RETURN" and you'll overflow. I had a friend who made a really cool game, but he over-used and mis-used the GOSUB statement, resulting in a nice overflow error in the middle of gameplay. So anyway, I go in to debug it, and he used every second line number! There was absolutely no room for bug-fixing without the program looking like a spider web.

If anyone wants a crack at debugging this thing (for the C-64) be my guest. It's an absolute nightmare!
 
Bungo Pony wrote:

I believe GOSUB is the bad one. Mis-used and not used with a "RETURN" and you'll overflow. I had a friend who made a really cool game, but he over-used and mis-used the GOSUB statement, resulting in a nice overflow error in the middle of gameplay. So anyway, I go in to debug it, and he used every second line number! There was absolutely no room for bug-fixing without the program looking like a spider web.

Yeah, not sure if I've done that myself - I once had an Overflow error after typing in somebodies program, back in them days I didn't have any Debugging skills! :-( It is a rule I apply to though that every GOSUB needs a RETURN statement! Otherwise yeah use GOTO! I wrote a couple of programs the other day which had A GOTO in it! :-o I soon fixed that my saying WHILE INKEY$<>CHR$(13) and put the WEND in the proper spot! :)
 
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