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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : [AVR] BASIC interpreter for Arduino board
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psergiu Regular Member  Joined: 09/02/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 83 |
Hi, I just got myself a cheap dswy_robot (Arduino Pro Mini clone) and i was asking myself if i can turn-it into a MicroMite-like device, running a BASIC interpreter on it. I found Tiny Basic Plus. It's an integer-only, quite limited BASIC, but it works. Does anyone knows other alternatives ? Thanks. |
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| JohnS Guru  Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3998 |
Maybe some of these are of use: www.compilers.net/Dir/Free/Compilers/Basic.htm www.dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/BASIC/ www.cbel.com/basic_programming_language/ http://forum.basicprogramming.org/index.php www.nicholson.com/rhn/basic/basic.info.html www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/basic.shtml www.freeprogrammingresources.com/basic.html gambas.sourceforge.net http://jumentum.sourceforge.net/ https://projects.drogon.net/return-to-basic/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/lbpp/ http://wxbasic.sourceforge.net/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbasic/ http://yabasic.basicprogramming.org/ http://gcbasic.sourceforge.net/index.html John |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
Hi pserglu, it would be cool if there was a basic available for the arduino boards that could also make use of all the libraries available out there for arduino. If this was possible, that would open a very cool can of worms, but without that, it's just another micro that can be programmed in basic. You would have to develop all the routines and manually deal with all the unsupported I/O just like we do now. The fact that the uMite has some hardware interfaces programmed in already make this thing great. Using LCD, keyboard, ir, servos, temp, rtc, etc. has become as easy as it is for arduino users just to throw some simple arguments at it and it works. If the arduino basic could do that with all the many libraries out there, jeez that would be great. |
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| psergiu Regular Member Joined: 09/02/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 83 |
JohnS - thanks for the links - quite a few things that i bookmarked from there - but none of them are interpreters that can be installed on a Arduino-compatible board. (Jumentum SOC is the only interpreter, but for ARM chips) viscomjim - Looks like Tiny Basic Plus has some support for extending the language using standard libs - It currently uses SD Library and EEProm Library for storage operations. Looking at the source code, it seems that library support for new stuff won't be hard to add - the limit being the RAM usage that each library requires. I was wondering if anyone knows of any other similar projects for Arduino hardware. Thanks. |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
psergiu, I also once saw that the soldercore corebasic was being ported to a lot of other micros. The soldercore unit itself has a arduino footprint that you can put shields on and the corebasic had quite a few drivers or "libraries" for them. This was a very exciting thing to me, however, it seems that the soldercore isn't the top priority of the company right now but the porting of the code to other micros is. They have it running on quite a few dev boards out there. Something you might want to check out. From their forum... "The CoreBASIC source code is now ported to 20 different boards! You can run CoreBASIC on all of them!" Here is their main product If it wasn't for their lack of support on the soldercore board itself, I never would have stumbled upon uMite. I'm not saying their hardware product is bad (its actually pretty bad ass), just not well supported at this point. Thier corebasic however is an ongoing thing as it seems... |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3998 |
A full-featured interpreter will want lots of flash and also lots of RAM, something it's my impression Arduino boards seem very poor value at providing at anything like good value if at all. Now I'm curious as to why it's wanted... John |
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| psergiu Regular Member Joined: 09/02/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 83 |
TinyBasicPlus, in the current implementation looks to be using ~900 bytes of RAM, leaving 1100 bytes free on a 328 chip. Quite limited, but a bit more than on a Sinclair ZX81 :) Why ? Why not. I like the idea of "fixing stuff on the go" - you just connect a serial console (phone/tablet with serial cable) and debug instead of getting the chip back to the computer to reflash. The micro-controller is no longer a slave to the big PC that has to program-it but it becomes a stand-alone computer. For big projects or for things requiring tight timings and various libraries, Arduino-compiled code is the way to go. But for thinks like: IF door_sensor = on OR pir_sensor = on THEN turn on relay for lamp SLEEP 30 sec turn off relay for lamp ENDIF GOTO beginning it's much simpler (for me) to use BASIC and much easier to fix if you just need to have the lamp on for 5 seconds more. I know that i can use a Micromite for this, but ... quoting George Malory when it was asked: "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?" "Because it's there" |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3998 |
I'm still puzzled why you'd use a Basic with so few features now that the umite exists or is it a desire to have open source or some such? If it has to be open source, you could always use the earlier MMBasic / DMBasic and tweak it for a umite type board. Or find something for a cheap board like from ST (NUCLEO etc). Maybe even a cheap Allwinner board? John |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
CrossWorks CoreBASIC is pretty much available for a lot of dev boards. But I agree, uMite is a game changer at least for me and the "embedded" type stuff I am working on. Not super concerned about open source, just concerned that I can do what I need to do. So far, uMite has fit the bill a few times over. I am sure, based on the all of a sudden lack of 128d's that this uMite thing may be working for a lot more projects than we know. |
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| psergiu Regular Member Joined: 09/02/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 83 |
An Arduino Mini Pro clone can be had from chinese sellers for close to 2 USD, shipping included. And can be programmed with a USB data cable from an old phone. I like the idea to make such a cheap stand-alone computer. I also like to challenge myself to make most out of very limited hardware. I like old & slow computers, i'm a computer history nut. So i'm doing this for fun :) viscomjim - reading their website, CoreBASIC seems to require more powerful CPUs. After more searching, i found those: More Basic versions for Arduino: - PS2 kb + SD + LCD - PS2 kb + SD + TV-out (uses 2 arduinos) - A german one with COLOR COMPOSITE VIDEO (requires atmega 644 - from what i can understand) - Another one from a russian guy - AttoBasic - even works on ATTiny chips And as an alternative to BASIC there's Bitlash . |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
After looking at those sites, all I can say is Thank You Geoff for uMite! |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3998 |
hehe, poverty-spec stuff! John |
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| memberx Newbie  Joined: 20/04/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 24 |
Quote from Arduino forum, regarding Basic for an Arduino. http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=145855.30 "Interpreter Basic is a ancient and cruel form of torture supported by masochists and the ingnorant." Fact is Arduino 8 bit AVR simply doesn't have the resources for a decent Basic Interpreter. 99.999999% of people that know how to program in C wouldn't want to look at Basic for obvious reasons anyway. |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2946 |
Hi Memberx, I always liked "Basic is the only language that takes less time to master than it takes for any program written in it to run" (that can be looked at 2 ways) Seriously though, if BASIC wasn't around some people, such as myself, would not be able to write any code.. I have tried several times to learn some C and it is `HORRIBLE' ... well thats my opinion... Yes its fast but my brain is wired differently than what is required by C. Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| viscomjim Guru Joined: 08/01/2014 Location: United StatesPosts: 925 |
I'm with Mick on that one. My brain for some reason has a mental block when it comes to arduino stuff or C. It kills me when I see 12 year olds making cool stuff with arduinos and my old brain can't deal. Jeez... |
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| psergiu Regular Member Joined: 09/02/2013 Location: United StatesPosts: 83 |
Well ... i guess i'm the former then :) I'll try installing install those that i linked and write a mini-review for each on the precent of usefulness compared to a 'mite. :) |
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kiiid Guru Joined: 11/05/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 671 |
About 20 years ago I would have probably said the same thing (with a bit more passion, though), as back then Pascal was my main language of choice closely followed by Basic. Now I would say that C is a brilliant language which allows fiddling with code to a level otherwise impossible. There are a few things in C which I particularly dislike, such as its natural tendency to spread over hundreds of files for a larger program, the header files in general, and the ugly curly brackets. But those are livable issues. Adding the ++ stuff though is a different matter - then I completely agree with the "horrible" statement. But let's not forget that a good Basic (or any other) interpreter cannot be written well in Basic. Only C is the choice for those who make the higher level languages. http://rittle.org -------------- |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
@kiiid, with some exceptions: - Great Cow Basic compiler is written in FreeBasic - made in Australia; - Pic Micro Pascal is written in Delphi (Object Pascal) - made in France. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| kiiid Guru Joined: 11/05/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 671 |
Both are compilers, not interpreters http://rittle.org -------------- |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Yeah, this one started as a Pascal project, but it seems that the author came to the same conclusion and converted the project to C. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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