Andrew Kesterson
694b446ce4
`RGR(1)` and `RGR(2)` gave the window in pixels and nothing gave columns, rows or the cell size -- so anything placing a character *and* a sprite at the same spot had to hardcode a number measured by hand against whatever font the host loaded. The Breakout in examples/ does exactly that, `CW# = 16`, and it is the one thing in that listing that breaks on a different font or window. **`RWINDOW` is BASIC 7.0's own answer and had never been implemented here.** `RWINDOW(0)` is the current text window's rows and `RWINDOW(1)` its columns. `RWINDOW(2)` reports a C128's 40 or 80 column screen mode, and this interpreter has neither -- refused by name, because answering 0 would be a plausible lie, which is worse than a refusal that says why. The cell size in pixels is `RGR(3)` and `RGR(4)`, beside the surface's own dimensions rather than on `RWINDOW`. Two reasons: a cell size is a fact about the surface, and `RWINDOW` reports the *window*, so dividing `RGR(1)` by a column count stops being right the moment a program calls `WINDOW`. Both read a new optional `grid` entry point on `akbasic_TextSink` -- columns, rows, cell width, cell height -- implemented by the akgl sink and forwarded by the tee, in the shape `moveto` and `window` already had. NULL everywhere else, so both verbs refuse by name against a sink with no grid. `akbasic_sink_init_ stdio()` clears it for the same reason it now clears the other two. Measured on the standalone build: `RGR(3)` answers 16 and `RWINDOW` answers 50 columns by 37 rows -- the three numbers the Breakout listing had written out as constants -- and `RWINDOW` follows a `WINDOW` call while `RGR(3)` does not. tests/console_verbs.c drives the answers through a stand-in sink with a grid, since the harness sink is stdio and has none; tests/graphics_verbs.c covers the new `RGR` fields, their refusal, and the moved range bound. The `c excerpt=` block in docs/10-embedding.md moves with the header, which is `docs_examples` doing its job. TODO.md section 6 item 31's second half, struck. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The akbasic guide
akbasic is a BASIC interpreter in the style of Commodore BASIC 7.0 — the dialect the C128 shipped with — and Dartmouth BASIC. It runs programs from a file or from an interactive prompt, and it is also a C library you can link into a game so that players can script it.
These chapters follow the shape of the C128 Programmer's Reference Guide: the language first, then each hardware area, then the reference sections. If you know BASIC 7.0 you can skip to Chapter 13, which is the list of everything that behaves differently here and why. Chapter 14 is the odd one out: it is about the interpreter rather than the language, for anyone embedding it, debugging it or changing it.
Chapters 17 and 18 are tutorials rather than reference: they build one complete game twice, two different ways, and are where the rules that a real program runs into are collected.
Chapters
| 1. Introduction | What akbasic is, what it is not, and how to build it |
| 2. Getting started | The prompt, your first program, saving and loading |
| 3. The language | Variables, types, arrays, operators, expressions |
| 4. Control flow | IF, FOR, DO, GOSUB, labels, ON, error trapping |
| 5. Strings and formatting | String functions, PRINT USING, PUDEF |
| 6. Graphics | GRAPHIC, DRAW, BOX, CIRCLE, PAINT, shapes |
| 7. Sound | SOUND, PLAY, ENVELOPE, VOL, TEMPO |
| 8. Sprites | SPRITE, SPRSAV, MOVSPR, collision |
| 9. Files and disk | Channels, DOPEN, program storage |
| 10. Embedding | Driving the interpreter from C |
| 11. Verb reference | Every statement, alphabetically |
| 12. Function reference | Every function, alphabetically |
| 13. Differences from BASIC 7.0 | What a C128 programmer needs to know |
| 14. Architecture | How the interpreter is put together, how to debug it, how to change it |
| 15. Error codes | Appendix: every value ER# can hold and every error line the interpreter prints |
| 16. Structures | TYPE, records, strict pointers, and sharing a C struct with an embedding host |
| 17. Tutorial: Breakout | Build a whole game out of the text grid and two DATA sprites, a step at a time |
| 18. Tutorial: Breakout with artwork | Build it again out of loaded artwork, powerups and a drawn HUD |
The shortest possible start
$ cmake -S . -B build && cmake --build build
$ ./build/basic
10 FOR I# = 1 TO 5
20 PRINT "HELLO " + I#
30 NEXT I#
RUN
HELLO 1
HELLO 2
HELLO 3
HELLO 4
HELLO 5
READY
Two things in that program are not Commodore BASIC and will catch you out
immediately: variables carry a type suffix (I# is an integer) and +
concatenates a string with a number. Chapter 3 explains both.
Every example in these chapters is executed by the test suite and its output
compared byte for byte — see MAINTENANCE.md if you are editing them.