👾 SuperBAS

A compiler for turning a BASIC superset into native executables and/or web code.

It's based on .NET Core 3 and supports Windows, macOS & Linux

What and why?

SuperBAS (Superset of BASIC) is based on ZX BASIC, designed to simplify complex parts and add commands for interfacing with modern operating systems.

1 name$ = "SuperBAS!"
2 PRINT "Hello, " + name$
3 GOTO 1

So why?

People who played around with home computers in the 80s like the Spectrum or Amstrad can feel alienated by programming for modern PCs, and emulators or interpreters for old languages are plagued by low speed or dated sugar-less syntax.

SuperBAS fixes that! It is designed to match your rose-tinted view of older BASIC languages, not the frustration you felt with certain features, and it compiles down to native binaries or runs right in a webpage with C# and JS transpilation. SuperBAS is not emulated or interpreted.

Targets

SuperBAS' compiler is designed to target almost any language you can think of. Adding support for a new target is near-trivial for someone well antiquated with their language.

Supported right now

• C#
• JavaScript

Support is planned

• Go
• Ruby
• Your favourite language? PRs are welcome

Usage

Download a release for your platform, run it like so:

./SuperBAS test.sbas Program.cs CSharp

You can compile the resulting file on Windows with a command like this (assuming you have VS Build Tools installed):

csc Output.cs /out:MyProgram.exe /optimize

or

./SuperBAS test.sbas Script.js JavaScript

So where do I start?

Using the spec to learn SuperBAS is easy. Every command, operator and standard library function is documented with examples.

If you're looking for full examples like FizzBuzz, see /BasicCode.

Watch out though, it's a little full of test scripts in there.

Live life in colour!

Syntax highlighting is available for Atom and VS Code