[Simh] off-topic basic translator

[Ken Cornetet]

I don’t know how feasible this would be for VAX code, but this might work: write a converter/emulator that reads the relocatable object code for VAX basic (assuming you can get it – I don’t know how VAX software is distributed) and converts it to C code. You’d have to write wrappers that emulate VAX library routines using posix routines.

If it worked, you’d have a portable version of VAX basic.

I’ve been thinking about trying this with the OS that I use simh for – hp1000/RTE



From: Simh [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] On Behalf Of khandy21yo
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2015 8:33 PM
To: Dan Gahlinger; simh at trailing-edge.com
Subject: Re: [Simh] off-topic basic translator

Tgat looks like vt52 sewuence. To work on more terminal screens you might want to upgrade to ansii vt100 at leasr. Some terminals dont understand the vt52 codes.


-------- Original message --------
From Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com<mailto:dgahling at hotmail.com>>
Date: 08/05/2015 1:56 PM (GMT-07:00)
To simh at trailing-edge.com<mailto:simh at trailing-edge.com>
Subject Re: [Simh] off-topic basic translator

Another issue I'm running into which should be fun, is VT escape sequences

eg:
170 PRINT ESC+"Y"+CHR$(53)+CHR$(33);\INPUT #1;"PRESS RETURN TO CONTINUE";A$

That puts the cursor at a specific place on screen,
these were built on VT-52 and VT-100 terminals with fixed screen size.
using Linux you can get ANSI support, but the screen could be a vastly different size,
of course, we can just make it run like normal.

the other problem is the escape sequences themselves may not work any more.
they seem to work in Linux with ANSI enabled,
will they work on Mac CLI (maybe) or DOS/Windows ? portability is important.

But, I'm not going to do a ton of work writing cursor routines for a dozen basic programs from the 80's.

and btw freepascal has incredible string handling for those doubters out there...

Dan.
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