The EndBASIC programming language

EndBASIC is an interpreter for a BASIC-like language and is inspired by Amstrad's Locomotive BASIC 1.1 and Microsoft's QuickBASIC 4.5. Like the former, EndBASIC intends to provide an interactive environment that seamlessly merges coding with immediate visual feedback. Like the latter, EndBASIC offers higher-level programming constructs and strong typing. The main idea behind EndBASIC is to provide a playground for learning the foundations of programming in a simplified environment.

EndBASIC is written in Rust. The parser and interpreter's primary goal is to be readable and easy to modify. A secondary goal is to make the core minimal, extensible, and configurable. Performance is not a goal right now, though it likely won't disappoint.

EndBASIC is free software under the Apache 2.0 License.

Features

EndBASIC's features are inspired by other BASIC interpreters but the language does not intend to be fully compatible with them. The language currently supports:

• Variable types: boolean (?), integer (%), and string ($).
• Strong typing with optional variable type annotations.
• IF ... THEN / ELSEIF ... THEN / ELSE / END IF statements.
• WHILE ... / END WHILE loops.
• INPUT and PRINT builtins.
• UTF-8 everywhere (I think).

Installation

The latest version of EndBASIC is 0.1.0 and was released on 2020-04-22.

There currently are no binary releases for EndBASIC. To install, first get a Rust toolchain (either from your system's package manager, if any, or using rustup) and then build from source using cargo:

shell cargo install endbasic

This should work on any Linux, macOS, and Windows system (all of which are tested on CI).

Usage

At the moment, the endbasic binary does not yet provide an interactive interpreter so all you can do is give it files to execute:

shell endbasic some-program.bas

You can peek into the tests subdirectory of this repository to see actual code samples.

Why EndBASIC?

EndBASIC started as part of my desire to teach programming to my own kids. I remember learning programming on an old Amstrad CPC 6128: the experience was unique in the sense that every command had immediate effect. Changing colors, drawing on the screen, or playing sounds were just a few keystrokes away after booting the computer, without the need to deal with separate editors and terminals. I've noticed a similar excitement in my kids when showing this to them via an emulator, so I thought I would replicate this in a more modern fashion. And here we are.

Because of this inspiration, EndBASIC's name stands for "E. and D.'s BASIC" following my kids first name initials.