basic

[Brandon Allbery]

> Article <198 at desint.UUCP>, from geoff at desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
+----------------
| In article <228 at spp2.UUCP> Jeff Hull writes:
| 
| >Just an opinion...
| >anyone who ports BASIC to a UNIX system should be deleted from the
| >net.  For those who have programs in BASIC which they need, there
| >SHOULD be (but isn't as far as I know) a BASIC-TO-X translator (where
| >X is C or Modula-2 or ...) and the BASIC source should then be
| >trashed.
| 
| Have you ever seen the output of a Y-to-X translator?  Not a pretty sight,
| especially to the person who gets stuck with maintaining the X code.

We're a test site for JMI BASTOC, an MBASIC to C converter.  I have
so far found it easy to use and to put out rational C code; it replaces
BASIC commands with C functions, sometimes splitting it up (as PRINT
is a series of function calls in C), but easy to understand.  The only
problem I've found is no open-for-append function -- I will be adding
that to my copy (they included the converter lookup table source, so
you can add your own statements/functions; I have added the MBASIC-68K
SHELL command this way).  (Oh... two other problems, neither of which
are BASTOC's fault.  I had to change the INKEY_() library function (INKEY$)
to use TIOCSETP instead of TIOCSETN, because we don't have TIOCSETN;
and if you convert a program using ON ERROR GOTO, it outputs a statement-to-
line map at the end, via a switch... and our brain-damaged C compiler
overflows its switch tables.  Oh, how I long for a VAX! :-})

--bsa
-- 
  Brandon Allbery @ North Coast Xenix  |   the.world!ucbvax!decvax!cwruecmp!
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			`Confusion is my natural state.'