Modular Unix BASIC, version 2.2a

Written by Christian A. Ratliff <ratlifc@lily.org>
Floating Point Format by Matt Nelson <nelsonm@ctron.com>
Name and Testing by Erik Barstow <ebarstow@ctron.com>

based on Microsoft GW-BASIC 3.23
(c) Copyright Microsoft 1983,1984,1985,1986,1987,1988


  Back in 1989 I was a newbie programmer writing toys in GWBASIC on old
IBM XTs. The toys I wrote then followed me around for many years until
one day I had a sudden need to see that old code. [What can I say it was
a slow day? :)] The PCs nowadays run Qbasic, which cannot even convert old
BASICA/GWBASIC code to the new format. No luck there. The Net had nothing
to offer to read this kind of code either.
  I decided then to write a pretty-printer which read MS format GWBASIC
and outputs PostScript. Armed with one hardcopy of a 2,000 line BASIC
program and a copy of the binary for the same I set to work. The initial
text printer took an hour or so. Then the first two, of four, floating
point formats was another 2-3 hours. I quickly realized I was close to
having something more interactive.
  I broke the code into sections, rewrote some of it and threw some crufty
junk away. Once more armed with a small Pocket Books GWBASIC/BASICA Guide
I set to work writing a GWBASIC enviroment/interpreter/executor. Currently
the enviroment is well underway. The interpreter still needs 1.5 floating
point formats built into it [those are hard to figure out!], and some of
the stranger opcodes are still missing:  PEEK, POKE, COM, etc...
  Like all tiny projects this sat in a directory and gathered dust until
I changed jobs and found it again. The port to BSDI was pretty damn hard,
for a 1,500 line program, and I quickly gave up to adjust to my new job.
Eventually I got myself a Unix box for home and started work on a BSD
port again. This time I quickly found and resolved the problems and
I'm back to work on it again.
  I hope someone reads this who also has old GWBASIC code lying around
they would like to read, write, run, and generally mess around with. If
you are someone matching that description give a gander at the code
on ftp://ftp.lily.org/pub/ratlifc/gwbasic-2.2.tar.gz and send me email
at <ratlifc@lily.org>

Christian Ratliff
<ratlifc@lily.org>
http://www.lily.org/~ratlifc
