Andrew Kesterson
8594d8471d
`shape_variable()` took the identifier off the leaf and looked the variable up without ever evaluating the subscript, and both verbs then addressed element zero with a literal. So `SSHAPE SH$(2), ...` wrote the handle into `SH$(0)` and `GSHAPE SH$(2)` stamped whatever was in `SH$(0)`. Ordinary assignment and `PRINT` honour the subscript, which is what made this expensive: a program keeping several saved shapes in an array got every one of them resolving to the same element, silently, and the only symptom was that every stamp came out as the last shape captured. The Breakout in examples/ keeps its six brick stamps in six separate scalars for exactly this reason. `SPRSAV` was the counter-example and is the model -- it evaluates its argument and handles an array element correctly. The subscript resolution itself is now shared: `collect_subscripts()` comes out of src/environment.c as `akbasic_environment_collect_subscripts()`, so a verb taking a variable by name resolves a subscript the same way assignment does rather than each verb deciding for itself. tests/graphics_verbs.c covers TODO.md's reduction -- which used to print "[SHAPE:0] []" and now prints "[] [SHAPE:0]" -- and the case a program actually wants: two shapes captured into two elements, each stamped back through its own, asserted against the device log so a fix that merely made the strings look right would not pass. Chapter 18's trap 4 becomes history, and Chapter 6 says an array works. TODO.md section 9 item 6, 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.