Bare Metal Raspberry Pi BASIC | Hacker News Reader

Bare Metal Raspberry Pi BASIC

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69 points_acme12 comments

This sort of already exists in the form of RISC OS Pico: https://www.riscosopen.org/content/sales/risc-os-pico

(You don't have to buy it, just download the zip.)

A bare-bones version of RISC OS with the GUI desktop stripped out, leaving only the command line ("supervisor") prompt, and ARM BASIC V, which is arguably still the most featureful version of BASIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_BASIC#Acorn_Archimedes_.28...

A unique feature of ARM BASIC is the presence of an inline assembler allowing users to write ARM assembly language programs. The assembler is fully integrated into the BASIC interpreter and shares variables with it, which can be included between the [ and ] characters, saved via ★SAVE and ★LOAD, and called via the CALL or USR commands. This allows developers to write not just assembly language code, but also BASIC code to emit assembly language, making it possible to use code-generation techniques and even write simple compilers in BASIC.

Yes, you definitely want a proper BASIC, and BBC BASIC V would just about do it. It's actually a decent BASIC, not some unstructured POS, and it's got an integrated assembler. So even if you're an assembly language programmer, you can treat it like an assembler with a fancy macro language.

It does smell of the 1980s, sporting line numbers and RESTORE/DATA and implicit variable declaration. But it's a reassuring, nostalgic smell, even if not a healthy one, a bit like four star petrol, perhaps, or stale tobacco smoke. A far cry from its Microsoft BASIC equivalent, with its two-char variable names and single-dimension arrays: nothing there but the stench of ordure and corpses.

Fantastic! I've been meaning to do this myself, but glad to see that it exists.

I believe that this kind of single-purpose OS can be even easily created using an unikernel such as mirage, but that removes part of the fun of course.

Too bad the SoC in the RPi is far more undocumented than the C64, and even experimentation is unlikely to yield much. PEEK/POKE were probably the most fun commands for doing interesting things from BASIC.

Awesome! How do you boot up the processor, do you still have to use the GPU firmware blob to get the processor to do anything?

edit: Looking at the source, yeah you have to use Broadcom's firmware.

Oh man, this reminds me of my Mattel Aquarius days! Numbering every line, leaving gaps in between line numbers incase I wanted to add something in between. So much work. Now I just need a terrible rubber keyboard and I'll be set!

When can I play Gorillas[1] on it?

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_(video_game)

Now. http://store.raspberrypi.com/projects/fastdosbox

I don't think this app will run on RPi BASIC

Most likely it would require some adaptation work. Gorillas was written for Microsoft's BASIC, which, even though it would be considered atrocious when compared to BBC BASIC, seems a tad more sophisticated than uBASIC.

I'd love a full c64 emulator on a Pi :D

http://www.commodorepi.co.nr/

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