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panky

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Joined: 02/10/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1114

Posted: 04:20am 13 Nov 2023

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I will be moving house over the next three months and may not get much opportunity to update either manual.
Please continue to post suggestions and/or corrections to this thread and I will include them in the next update.
Latest versions of both manuals, here for MMeXtreme and here for MMB4W
Regards,
Doug.

... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it!

Turbo46

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Joined: 24/12/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1638

Posted: 11:44pm 13 Nov 2023

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Thanks again for all of your efforts Panky. In the MMB4W manual(s) there is still the minor point of the many references to the VGA monitor which is not appropriate for laptops and HDMI monitors.

Bill

Keep safe. Live long and prosper.

panky

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Joined: 02/10/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1114

Posted: 09:38pm 14 Nov 2023

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Cheers Bill,
Re the reference to VGA monitor, this should be where the manual is talking about the 144 pin backpack that has a VGA output - I will ensure this is clearer in the next update.
Regards,
Doug.

... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it!

Turbo46

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Joined: 24/12/2017
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Posts: 1638

Posted: 02:56am 15 Nov 2023

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Thanks Doug,
I was referring only to the MMB4W manual with the VGA comment.

Bill

Keep safe. Live long and prosper.

PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1302

Posted: 02:48pm 16 Nov 2023

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MMB4W

Need colons after the Mode number(?)

Performance is PC dependent (I get 10 to 20 X this value)

Typo:

To create from scratch: Edit "ProgName.bas"

disco4now

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Joined: 18/12/2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 992

Posted: 06:20am 08 Feb 2025

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The links to these manuals are broken. The latest copy I have is on FotS until Panky does an update.

MMB4W Manual on FotS

MMX Manual on FotS
Edited 2025-02-08 16:33 by disco4now

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Andrew_G
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Joined: 18/10/2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 868

Posted: 11:01pm 17 Apr 2025

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Hi Folks,
A safe Easter to you all.

I'm starting to explore the beauties of MMB4W and had a hard time confirming that I had the latest s/w and manual.
'It seems to me' that MMB4W deserves to have a place more prominent than page 8 (where I found this post).

I hope that MMB4W has not quite reached the status of a 'Norwegian Blue'.
It has a great manual (thanks Panky) and is very useful for testing and use on a PC.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Andrew
Edited 2025-04-18 09:04 by Andrew_G

panky

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Joined: 02/10/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1114

Posted: 01:09am 19 Apr 2025

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I think I have uploaded a copy of the latest user manual for MMB4W to FoTS but in case it didn't work, here is a copy
MMB4W User Manual v0.97.pdf
Regards,
Doug.

... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it!

Andrew_G
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Joined: 18/10/2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 868

Posted: 01:51am 19 Apr 2025

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Hi Doug,
Thanks for that. I have been using v0.94 (and that is on FoTS).

Are you open to simple questions?

Regards,

Andrew

panky

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Joined: 02/10/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1114

Posted: 02:25am 19 Apr 2025

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Andrew_G said Hi Doug,
Thanks for that. I have been using v0.94 (and that is on FoTS).

Are you open to simple questions?

Regards,

Andrew

Absolutely! Just uploaded a slightly newer version that has Peter's GAMEPAD details.
Doug.

PS. Can anyone confirm if the FoTS version of the user manual is 0.97?

... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it!

TassyJim

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Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6253

Posted: 02:41am 19 Apr 2025

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FoTS still looks like V0.94 assuming I was looking in the right place.

Jim

VK7JH
MMedit

panky

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Joined: 02/10/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1114

Posted: 02:53am 19 Apr 2025

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Cheers Jim,
I think I have it uploaded but can't figure out how to get FoTS to update.
The link here should have the very latest v0.97 User Manual for MMB4W v5.07.03b24.
Doug.
Edited 2025-04-19 12:59 by panky

... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it!

Andrew_G
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Joined: 18/10/2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 868

Posted: 03:26am 19 Apr 2025

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Hi Doug and Jim,
The more I get into it the better it gets.
For example full GUI graphics and, with MODE 20, it is the same as my 4" LCD 480x320.

My simple question is (and I understand that it can't do everything) but:

- Can one set up a 'shortcut' on Windows that invokes MMB4W and runs a specific program?
(I'm trying to do something for Jackie who is not really into 'detail')

Cheers,

Andrew

panky

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Joined: 02/10/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1114

Posted: 03:52am 19 Apr 2025

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Andrew,
I actually run MMB4W under wine on Linux Mint and in that environment, I can enter (from a terminal)
wine MMBasic.exe "someprogram.bas" which starts MMBasic and runs the program given.

I imaging you should be able to do exactly the same (without the wine prefix obviously) in Windows.
The manual page 9 gives more detail.
Doug.

... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it!

panky

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Joined: 02/10/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 1114

Posted: 03:58am 19 Apr 2025

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Andrew,
As another option, if you create a separate directory, place a copy of MMB4W in there, start MMBasic, load (but not RUN) the program you want to start automatically and then set AUTORUN on, this should automatically run your program when you next start MMBasic - have not tested this but it's something for you to explore.
Doug.

... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it!

Andrew_G
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Joined: 18/10/2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 868

Posted: 07:05am 19 Apr 2025

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Hi Doug,
Yes I think it should be possible. Thanks.

Two quick comments on the manual if I may:

1) Page 39: 2nd para: "OPTION GUI CONTROLS 75" gives an error and it works without it.

2) Geoff's GUI demo. Page 48: the lines:

"GUI Numberbox nbr_hi, 318,MM.Info(VPos)-"

and;

"GUI Numberbox nbr_lo, 318,MM.Info(VPos)-"

wrap around and cause a syntax error. The user needs to remove the CR after each "-".

It is a great demo and identical to the LCD versions - but with a mouse.

Andrew

TassyJim

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Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6253

Posted: 10:04am 19 Apr 2025

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Quote Can one set up a 'shortcut' on Windows that invokes MMB4W and runs a specific program?
(I'm trying to do something for Jackie who is not really into 'detail')

Yes

create a batch file

cd "C:\Apps\bas\"
C:\Apps\MMB4W\MMBasic.exe "C:\Apps\bas\colourBars.bas"

and save it to the desktop

Make the appropriate changes.

Jim

VK7JH
MMedit

Andrew_G
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Joined: 18/10/2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 868

Posted: 01:47am 20 Apr 2025

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Hi Jim,
Thanks. I got there after a lot of stuffing around with long paths etc.
(Your description was spot-on).

CD C:\Andrew\MMBasic - For Windows (MMB4W)
MMBasic.exe "4WOWGetv2.BAS"

Cheers,

Andrew

RAM26
Newbie

Joined: 09/06/2025
Location: United States
Posts: 3

Posted: 06:18am 16 Jun 2025

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New User Here,

Thanks to everyone for there hard work and persistence. Words can't describe the excitement I have over programming in IBM-style GW-Basic again. You have a real gem here with MMB4W. Not only is it blazingly fast, but appears complete in just about every way possible. I am looking forward to learning the quirks and workarounds I need to make my projects shine with this fine interpreter.

To that end, I set up a spreadsheet of all the different Screen Modes (1-20) vs all the different Fonts (1-7) so I could see where the sweet spot is for the old traditional IBM character-based screen (80 wide x 25 high).

It appears that Mode 1 and Font 4 (the defaults, right?) come pretty close to that original screen size (80 chars wide x 37.5 lines high). I can just limit screen writing to the first 25 lines and still have a live notification area below.

I ran into a bit of a snag though. I am using the old IBM type frame characters that live in the higher ASCII numbers 179-223. So, using Font 4, I discovered a small bug in ASCII character 221. It doesn't line up with character 220 along the left side. It appears to be offset by 2 or 3 pixels. This command line will illustrate (Make sure you have Font #4 enabled)

Font 4:For x=219 to 223:print x;" ";chr$(x):next x

See the little offset? It's annoying enough for me to want to change fonts. So I changed to Font #1 and Mode #2. All seems well and it's actually closer to original IBM mode at 80 Characters wide x 33 lines high. Although the whole screen is a whole lot lower resolution.

I would like to ask that char 221 in font 4 be fixed. Alternatively, I would like access to the hex data for that font, so I can define it myself. What an amazing language, where you can define your own font.

Ideally, I'd like to add upper-half ASCII characters to Font #3 (16x24) and work in Mode 11 (1280x760) which would give me 80 characters wide x 30 lines high. This would be to closest sweet spot to the original IBM screen, yet still allow me to work in higher resolution graphics.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated and allow me to continue to work with my new favorite language - MMB4W

disco4now

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Joined: 18/12/2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 992

Posted: 07:29am 16 Jun 2025

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Go to this page on FotS and see a link to the manual if you don't have it already. See the DEFINE Font command. The link to the source on GitHub will take you to the source and the font data is contained in a separate file for each font. Search about FontTweak on the forum. You can load the original font into FontTweak and edit and save it to a new font which you can save and then load as an additional font using the DEFINE Font structure.

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