As you may or may not know, PropBASIC was actually designed to be a PASM learning tool. As such it is not feature rich, for example you can only have one math operator per line and you cannot do math in anything other than a variable assignment.
I think I (We) have to make a decision if we want PropBASIC to remain a PASM learning tool? Or do we want it to be a full featured language in it own right?
I am leaning towards making it full featured. Much more like standard BASIC. That means a complete expression evaluation any time a value is expected, a stack for passing values to subroutines, etc.
This will make the compiled programs larger, and I really cannot see any sense in supporting native code as only very small programs would fit. Maybe support native code for TASK that are 100% PASM.
My other idea is to forget about a compiler and design an embedded BASIC. If you haven't seen it I wrote an embedded BASIC for the P1 for the Parallax Spinneret design contest. It was called PE-BASIC (Propeller Embedded BASIC) and was written in PropBASIC.
On the P2 this could be a very powerful language without the need for any external computer. It could be either controlled by a terminal program (serial input/output) or a PS/2 keyboard and VGA monitor.
Embedded BASIC would be nice because you don't have to worry about what OS or machine you are using. In fact PE-BASIC was able to be controlled via telnet on the Spinneret.
The P1 is kind of limited in RAM for this, but the P2 is a whole new story. I think a very power embedded BASIC could be written for the P2.
I know the speed won't be nearly as fast, but the PE-BASIC was pretty fast and MUCH faster than a Basic Stamp and those are used a lot.
Anyway that is my thoughts at the moment. I'd like to hear what PropBASIC user think.
Bean
I think I (We) have to make a decision if we want PropBASIC to remain a PASM learning tool? Or do we want it to be a full featured language in it own right?
I am leaning towards making it full featured. Much more like standard BASIC. That means a complete expression evaluation any time a value is expected, a stack for passing values to subroutines, etc.
This will make the compiled programs larger, and I really cannot see any sense in supporting native code as only very small programs would fit. Maybe support native code for TASK that are 100% PASM.
My other idea is to forget about a compiler and design an embedded BASIC. If you haven't seen it I wrote an embedded BASIC for the P1 for the Parallax Spinneret design contest. It was called PE-BASIC (Propeller Embedded BASIC) and was written in PropBASIC.
On the P2 this could be a very powerful language without the need for any external computer. It could be either controlled by a terminal program (serial input/output) or a PS/2 keyboard and VGA monitor.
Embedded BASIC would be nice because you don't have to worry about what OS or machine you are using. In fact PE-BASIC was able to be controlled via telnet on the Spinneret.
The P1 is kind of limited in RAM for this, but the P2 is a whole new story. I think a very power embedded BASIC could be written for the P2.
I know the speed won't be nearly as fast, but the PE-BASIC was pretty fast and MUCH faster than a Basic Stamp and those are used a lot.
Anyway that is my thoughts at the moment. I'd like to hear what PropBASIC user think.
Bean