[Coco] BASIC compiler for Rainbow IDE ?

[Stephen H. Fischer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Taylor" <operator at coco3.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 7:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] BASIC compiler for Rainbow IDE ?



> Right, the compiler would support line numbers and 2-character variable
> names as usual but also support no line numbers and probably up to 32
> characters for the variable names, upper and lowercase, etc. just like
> CCASM does.

Hi,

Think carefully about special characters in variable names.

I wanted to allow more but I ended up using just "_" when I was writing the
Urbane program.

I suggest that you drop the 2-character variable names and line number
support.

I did a trial conversion of a DECB program by hand and discovered a way to
do it with a program that was not too hard to write.

The result was a Urbane program that still had the two character names and
line numbers but was in a form that ready to change and expand.

So, I strongly suggest that you provide an DECB conversion and not talk at
all about 2-character and line number support.

Get the users of your compiler off on a new path right from the start. They
will thank you for this.

Note: Urbane will process a DECB program with two character names and line
numbers to make the resulting program smaller.

That's why I made a suggestion for someone to use it recently.

I should have said this then.

I might be interested in writing the conversion program which might just
work for conversion to your compiler also.

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The biggest benefit Urbane and your compiler provides would the ability to
create libraries of subroutines that can be reused easily and shared with
others.

Something that is very difficult with DECB.

Stephen H. Fischer

P.S. Try using the Urbane source as the first big test for your new
compiler.