A cross-compiler for MICROCOLOR BASIC 1.0 which runs on a stock TRS-80 MC-10 (preferably with the 16K adaptor or Darren Atkinson's MCX-32SD).
- A real "stock" TRS-80 MC-10 or an emulator like the "Virtual MC-10"
- A text file containing a MICROCOLOR BASIC program.
- The 16K Expansion is very helpful except for very small programs
Don't have James' Virtual MC-10? You really should if you have Microsoft Windows. Don't have Windows?
- You'll find a modified version of Mike Tinnes' JavaScript emulator here
- You can also select the MC-10 from Ciaran Anscomb's XRoar emulator here
Don't have a MICROCOLOR BASIC program?
- Have a look at Jim Gerrie's TRS-80 MC-10 amazing repository here
- Have a look at the examples, which contain a few precompiled programs from Jim's repository.
Want to write your own program?
- You may find it easier to first develop with an emulator that supports loading external text files rather than typing them in manually into the emulator. The Virtual MC-10 has a "QuickType" feature for this purpose. The modified JavaScript emulator allows you to enter keystrokes via a text file through the "Choose File" button.
- You'll find a language reference manual here.
- Darren Atkinson's MCX-128 is not yet supported.
- BREAK interruption is not supported
- CLOAD* and CSAVE* cassette files are incompatible with non-compiled programs.¹
- Statements: LIST, LLIST, CONT
- Functions: USR(), VARPTR()
Requires C++14. Tested on Apple clang version 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.28). The simple makefile should work on most systems.
If you'd rather compile without make, navigate to the "src" directory and enter:
c++ -std=c++14 -I. */*.cpp */*/*.cpp -o ../mcbasic
This should compile the program and put the executable in the parent directory.
Some attempt has been made to make the source compatible with Windows Visual Studio 2017. What works is to launch the Visual Studio "developer command prompt" by following the instructions here. If the link fails, try searching the internet for "Walkthrough: Compile a C program on the command line".
Once you have the developer command prompt open, navigate to the "src" directory of mcbasic, then run the vscompile.bat script by typing:
vscompile
You should see mcbasic.exe created in the src directory.
You should be comfortable using either a shell program (in linux) or a command prompt (in Windows) and know how to place the executable on your path. Once it is on your path, you may invoke it like any other command line utility.
Save your BASIC program as a text file. You may use any extension (e.g. ".txt" ".bas") Once you have your basic program, you may compile it via:
mcbasic [options] <yourprogram.bas>
Where [options] can be:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| ‑native | use native instructions instead of creating bytecode. This improves execution speed at the cost of increased codesize. Many programs are too big to use native. |
| ‑Wfloat | warn when a variable is promoted floating-point¹. (default) [-Wno-float to disable]. |
| ‑Wduplicate | warn when a duplicate line number is seen. (default) [-Wno-duplicate to disable]. |
| ‑Wunreached | warn when statements cannot be reached. (default) [-Wno-unreached to disable]. |
| ‑Wuninit | warn when a variable is used but never initialized anywhere. (default) [-Wno-uninit to disable]. |
| ‑Wunused | warn when a variable is assigned to an expression with no side-effects but never used. (default) [-Wno-unused to disable]. |
| ‑Wbranch | warn when conditional branches are pruned. (default) [-Wno-branch to disable]. |
| ‑g | generate debug instructions to provide the most recent line number when an error is encountered. |
| ‑list | output a BASIC³ program listing after optimizations. |
| ‑undoc | enable compilation with undocumented opcodes.⁴ |
| ‑el | allow empty line number specifications in ON, GO, and GOSUB statements.⁵ |
| ‑ul | do not generate compilation errors on unlisted line numbers.⁶ |
| ‑mcode | enable use of machine code (i.e. EXEC).⁷ |
| ‑S | run code generation stage, producing a Telemark-style⁸ assembly file (.asm) |
| ‑c | run code generation and assembly stage, producting a raw binary object file. |
| ‑v | be verbose when optimizing. |
| ‑‑ | treat subsequent arguments as file input (so you can compile a file that starts with "-", like "-filename.bas") |
It will then generate a .c10 file: <yourprogram.c10>
You can load the .c10 file in an emulator via CLOADM.
For playback into a real TRS-80 MC-10 you can try compiling Cirian Anscomb's cas2wav program to convert a .C10 to .WAV I'll eventually⁹ bundle .WAV creation into MCBASIC as well, so this step may be also unnecessary in the future.
¹ The current back-end implementation "emulates" floating-point with fixed-point. While that makes it faster than floating-point; it's far less accurate, takes more memory², and is slower than using integers. Avoid floating-point if you can.
² The current back-end implementation uses three bytes when implementing an integer (24 bit two's complement) and five bytes when implementing fixed-point (24 bit two's complement integer; 16-bit fraction).
³ Some extensions are used during the compilation stage (e.g. += and -= assignment increment/decrement operators and a WHEN..GOTO/GOSUB as a replacement for IF..GOTO/GOSUB ELSE). These extensions are internal and are not available for use in the source BASIC files.
⁴ Currently only the undocumented negate-with-carry instructions. The MC6801 and MC6809 both implement NGCA (opcode $42), NGCB (opcode $52), NGC <indexed> (opcode $62), and NGC <extended> (opcode $72). These permit negation of the "D" register in four cycles by issuing a NEGB (opcode $50) followed by NGCA (opcode $42). They can also negate multi-byte numbers in-place.² Use caution when using the ‑undoc switch, as many 6801 emulators fail to implement these instructions correctly.
⁵ A significant number of MC-10 programs exploited the fact that a missing line number after a GOTO, GOSUB, or ON..GOTO or ON..GOSUB statement implicitly resolved to line number zero (0) in MICROCOLOR BASIC. This enabled compact ON..GOTO and ON..GOSUB statements where unused branch indices could be conveniently skipped (or sent to line 0). For example, a programmer could write ON X GOTO 100,200,,300,,,,400,:GOTO 500 to branch to lines 100, 200, 0, 300, 0, 0, 0, 400, and 0 for values of X from 1-9, respectively; and to line 500 for other values of X.
⁶ A runtime ?UL ERROR will be generated instead. This is intended to be used in conjunction with the -el compiler flag. Use -g to diagnose where these errors occur.
⁷ As a precaution against unexpected behavior, the -mcode compiler flag is required for use with EXEC. EXEC will only work with the compiler if the machine code it invokes does not assume the MICROCOLOR BASIC interpreter is running or modify direct page variables needed by the compiler to function. Sic hunt dracones!
⁸ You can use this version to compile the .asm file if you do not have access to the old shareware version bundled with the Virtual MC-10. Otherwise, you can compile the generated .asm file by passing it as a filename to mcbasic.
⁹ The code in this repository was written in brief spurts over the course of perhaps twenty years. It's been largely relegated to a minor side-project as time and interest have permitted. Originally in K&R C, it was ported to ANSI C, then C++ (98). I've given it just enough treatment to work in C++14, but alas, C++20 is out as of this writing! It needs to be upgraded to comply with more modern programming guidelines. But perhaps, like MICROCOLOR BASIC itself, some of this code may bring you back to a simpler era. Enjoy!