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.
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:
?), integer (%), and string ($).IF ... THEN / ELSEIF ... THEN / ELSE / END IF statements.WHILE ... / END WHILE loops.INPUT and PRINT builtins.The EndBASIC core is minimal: the interpreter knows how to execute the logic
of the language but, by default, it exposes no builtins to the scripts---not
even INPUT or PRINT. This makes EndBASIC ideal for embedding into other
programs, as it is possible to execute external code without side-effects or
by precisely controlling how such code interacts with the host program.
The latest version of EndBASIC is 0.2.0 and was released on 2020-05-07.
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).
endbasic comes with a REPL command-line interface that offers fancy line
editing features and built-in documentation for all available features. You can
start the interactive interface by typing:
shell
endbasic
and you can exit it at any time by pressing CTRL+D.
The HELP command lets you obtain a list of all possible commands as well as
detailed usage information for any of them.
The interactive interface has support for manipulating a stored program: that
is, a program that lives in the memory of the interpreter. To get started, use
the EDIT command to enter new lines into the program, LIST to inspect its
contents and RUN to execute it. You can save and restore programs from disk
by using the SAVE and LOAD commands respectively, which by default are
backed by an endbasic subdirectory under your Documents folder. You can
then inspect the contents of this directory with the DIR command.
The lines that EDIT prints during program editing are not meaningful to the
program and only exist to support interactive editing. Line numbers are
typically multiples of ten to allow you to insert lines in-between others. For
example: if your program previously had lines 20 and 30 but you forgot a
statement between those, you can do EDIT 15 to enter that statement. If you
run out of lines, or if you want to tidy up their numbers to be multiples of ten
again, use the RENUM command.
Finally, use CLEAR to erase all variables set in the interactive editor, and
NEW to also erase the stored program from memory and start afresh.
You can give endbasic the name of a program to execute:
shell
endbasic some-program.bas
It is important to note that some features (like the HELP builtin command or
all stored program manipulation commands) are only available in the interactive
interface.
You can peek into the tests subdirectory of this repository to see actual
EndBASIC code samples. Look for all files with a .bas extension.
The examples directory contains sample code to show how to embed the EndBASIC
interpreter into your own programs.
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.