Visual bB 1.0 - a new IDE for batari Basic

[jwierer]

I just realized I haven't updated Visual bB for over a year and I have quite a few bug fixes and new features in my private build so I'm sharing it with the rest of the world. You can download from the first post.

 

New Features

• Added Image Converter accessible from View->Graphics Converter. This will open gifs, jpg, bmp, etc.. and convert to bB sprites or playfields
• Ability to export/import environment settings a registry (.reg) file. This makes it easier to move setting between multiple machines.
• Added the ability to customize the code editor with different font and background colors instead of just black and white
• Added the ability to right mouse click edit to open sprites, playfields, code, etc..
• Warning added when trying to create a sprite wider than 8 pixels.
• Warns when heights are too high for non-superchip playfields

Fixed Bugs

• At times compilation would complete successfully, but was reported as having failed.
• Plafield X's would periodically go lowercase when typing.
• TEMP Variables are now properly lower cased.
• Clicking on buttons in sprite animator when no sprites exists would crash.
• Cleanup post compilation files was deleting everything, now only removes: 2600basic_variable_redefs.h, bB.asm, includes.bB, and *.bas.asm.
• Opening TIA Palette periodically crashed
• Hitting enter on multiple lines results in duplicate label error
• Upper case variables were not discovered by intellisense
• Find and Replace periodically crashed
• Fixed Undo/Redo buttons always being disabled.
• Warning of unsaved code changes was not being displayed.

known Issues

Periodically warning messages not be cleared, locations will be off, or are just plain Wrong. You can hit Refresh, or F5, to force a full check of an open code file should clean it up.

 

Happy New Year,

Jeff

Edited January 2, 2010 by jwierer

[+Random Terrain]

Thanks. If you're looking for a new tool to add to VbB, I have an idea.

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-music-toy.html

 

We'd get instant response instead of the slow loading mess on that page. It would be an easy-to-use music creation program for batari Basic users that plays notes, outputs ready-to-use code to use with something like Music Starter using sdata, and has the ability to preview the music with the user's favorite emulator (such as Stella). It might look something like a stripped down version of Anvil Studio. I point out Anvil Studio because it has Lock Score. I can repeatedly click on the music keyboard to find the next note I want to use without entering notes, hit the keyboard shortcut to turn off Lock Score, enter the note, hit the keyboard shortcut again and bang away on the music keyboard some more until I find the next note and repeat until done.

 

[Dan Iacovelli]

I just realized I haven't updated Visual bB for over a year and I have quite a few bug fixes and new features in my private build so I'm sharing it with the rest of the world. You can download from the first post.

 

New Features

• Added Image Converter accessible from View->Graphics Converter. This will open gifs, jpg, bmp, etc.. and convert to bB sprites or playfields
• Ability to export/import environment settings a registry (.reg) file. This makes it easier to move setting between multiple machines.
• Added the ability to customize the code editor with different font and background colors instead of just black and white
• Added the ability to right mouse click edit to open sprites, playfields, code, etc..
• Warning added when trying to create a sprite wider than 8 pixels.
• Warns when heights are too high for non-superchip playfields

Fixed Bugs

• At times compilation would complete successfully, but was reported as having failed.
• Plafield X's would periodically go lowercase when typing.
• TEMP Variables are now properly lower cased.
• Clicking on buttons in sprite animator when no sprites exists would crash.
• Cleanup post compilation files was deleting everything, now only removes: 2600basic_variable_redefs.h, bB.asm, includes.bB, and *.bas.asm.
• Opening TIA Palette periodically crashed
• Hitting enter on multiple lines results in duplicate label error
• Upper case variables were not discovered by intellisense
• Find and Replace periodically crashed
• Fixed Undo/Redo buttons always being disabled.
• Warning of unsaved code changes was not being displayed.

known Issues

Periodically warning messages not be cleared, locations will be off, or are just plain Wrong. You can hit Refresh, or F5, to force a full check of an open code file should clean it up.

 

Happy New Year,

Jeff

thanks,

I will install it later today.

keep up the good work

[yuppicide]

Sounds awesome! I'll be downloading it later today as well. Sounds like a lot of good features, specially the image converter built in.

 

I'd love to see Random Terrain's sound idea implemented.

[jwierer]

Thanks. If you're looking for a new tool to add to VbB, I have an idea.

 

http://www.randomter...-music-toy.html

 

We'd get instant response instead of the slow loading mess on that page. It would be an easy-to-use music creation program for batari Basic users that plays notes, outputs ready-to-use code to use with something like Music Starter using sdata, and has the ability to preview the music with the user's favorite emulator (such as Stella). It might look something like a stripped down version of Anvil Studio. I point out Anvil Studio because it has Lock Score. I can repeatedly click on the music keyboard to find the next note I want to use without entering notes, hit the keyboard shortcut to turn off Lock Score, enter the note, hit the keyboard shortcut again and bang away on the music keyboard some more until I find the next note and repeat until done.

 

Since I have absolutely no musical talent this might be slightly out of my current capabilities

 

-Jeff

[yuppicide]

I'm sure we could find someone here to help you.

 

One person wrote a .SID (Commodore 64) music to Atari 2600 converter that outputs ASM code with some graphical display. I've put up some songs here:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/146569-sid-2-tia-conversions/page__p__1786517__fromsearch__1entry1786517

 

.. and Knight Rider here:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/26594-the-knight-rider-2600-project/page__st__450__p__1784214entry1784214

 

Would be nice to have something that makes it into bB code without the graphic display.

 

[jman1093]

The new version of Visual bB works great... except for the fact that the compiler always fails if I use an inline statement.

 

However, if I compile manually (from cmd.exe using 2600bas.bat) it works fine. Is there any way I can use this inline statement in my program and use Visual bB???

 

 

Dr. Nick

[jwierer]

The new version of Visual bB works great... except for the fact that the compiler always fails if I use an inline statement.

 

However, if I compile manually (from cmd.exe using 2600bas.bat) it works fine. Is there any way I can use this inline statement in my program and use Visual bB???

 

 

Dr. Nick

Send me an example so I can see what's happening.

 

-Jeff

[jman1093]

Send me an example so I can see what's happening.

 

-Jeff

 

Ok... so when I have the following lines:

 

 inline playerscores.asm 
inline bcd_math.asm 

 

It fails with the following errors:

 

2600 Basic compilation completed.
DASM V2.20.07, Macro Assembler (C)1988-2003
Warning: Unable to open 'playerscores.asm'
Warning: Unable to open 'bcd_math.asm'
bytes of ROM space left
Warning: Unable to open 'playerscores.asm'
Warning: Unable to open 'bcd_math.asm'
2815 bytes of ROM space left
Compilation completed at 1/7/2010 2:58:37 PM

 

I checked to see that the folder that I use (C:\Batari) was in the system path and that both files did exist in that folder. I see this problem as DASM not being able to find the files, BUT it works if I run say:

 

C:\Batari\2600bas.bat C:\Batari\projects\blahblahblah\default.bas

 

I'm baffled!

 

 

Dr. Nick

 

EDIT: It works now that I put the files in the C:\Batari\includes folder. Thanks for the speedy response and a great job with Visual bB

Edited January 8, 2010 by jman1093

[jwierer]

Glad you got it working. I wasn't looking forward to debugging that one

 

-Jeff

[Glitchy Furrystuff]

I dunno if I can report bugs in this topic (Too lazy to read, I know it damages my reputation) but whatever you do, DO NOT compile empty code, it causes the computer to go crazy, or at least mine, it stopped Windows Media Player and made my screen glitchy. If you ask me, you should definitely make a catch that prevents the user from compiling empty .bas files.

 

...Don't ask me why I did it by the way, I was just bored.

[jwierer]

I dunno if I can report bugs in this topic (Too lazy to read, I know it damages my reputation) but whatever you do, DO NOT compile empty code, it causes the computer to go crazy, or at least mine, it stopped Windows Media Player and made my screen glitchy. If you ask me, you should definitely make a catch that prevents the user from compiling empty .bas files.

 

...Don't ask me why I did it by the way, I was just bored.

What build are you using because I just tried and nothing happened. If you compile and test you'll get an empty bin which might make the emulator you're using go crazy, but vbB does nothing.

 

-Jeff

[+Philsan]

Thanks to Fred Quimby and his Harmony cart, after C64 and Atari 8-bit, I want to try to program simple videogames for VCS.

 

When I start Visual bB I get this message (first part in Italian):

Cast non valido dalla stringa "10/25/2008 11:03:26 AM" al tipo 'Date'.

Try using regedit to remove HKLM\Software\VisualbB.

When I click on the Run button I get this message:

Could not locate 3_MoveASprite.bas.bin and could not recompile.

Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly.

 

Moreover, I have found the program doesn't save settings (apart paths) when I exit.

Every time I start the program I have to flag Add bB Environment variable and Add bB compiler to system Path.

 

I have Windows 7 Utimate 32-bit.

[jwierer]

Thanks to Fred Quimby and his Harmony cart, after C64 and Atari 8-bit, I want to try to program simple videogames for VCS.

 

When I start Visual bB I get this message (first part in Italian):

Cast non valido dalla stringa "10/25/2008 11:03:26 AM" al tipo 'Date'.

Try using regedit to remove HKLM\Software\VisualbB.

When I click on the Run button I get this message:

Could not locate 3_MoveASprite.bas.bin and could not recompile.

Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly.

 

Moreover, I have found the program doesn't save settings (apart paths) when I exit.

Every time I start the program I have to flag Add bB Environment variable and Add bB compiler to system Path.

 

I have Windows 7 Utimate 32-bit.

My guess is you don't have admin rights to write to the registry which is causing those errors. I use it on Windows 7 on my personal laptop with no problems. You could try running by right clicking Run as Administrator and see if you get different results. UAC in Vista and Windows 7 can interfere if you have it really locked down.

 

-Jeff

[+Philsan]

Thanks to Fred Quimby and his Harmony cart, after C64 and Atari 8-bit, I want to try to program simple videogames for VCS.

 

When I start Visual bB I get this message (first part in Italian):

Cast non valido dalla stringa "10/25/2008 11:03:26 AM" al tipo 'Date'.

Try using regedit to remove HKLM\Software\VisualbB.

When I click on the Run button I get this message:

Could not locate 3_MoveASprite.bas.bin and could not recompile.

Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly.

 

Moreover, I have found the program doesn't save settings (apart paths) when I exit.

Every time I start the program I have to flag Add bB Environment variable and Add bB compiler to system Path.

 

I have Windows 7 Utimate 32-bit.

My guess is you don't have admin rights to write to the registry which is causing those errors. I use it on Windows 7 on my personal laptop with no problems. You could try running by right clicking Run as Administrator and see if you get different results. UAC in Vista and Windows 7 can interfere if you have it really locked down.

 

-Jeff

 

I am administrator. I also tried run as administrator but nothing changes.

[jwierer]

Thanks to Fred Quimby and his Harmony cart, after C64 and Atari 8-bit, I want to try to program simple videogames for VCS.

 

When I start Visual bB I get this message (first part in Italian):

Cast non valido dalla stringa "10/25/2008 11:03:26 AM" al tipo 'Date'.

Try using regedit to remove HKLM\Software\VisualbB.

When I click on the Run button I get this message:

Could not locate 3_MoveASprite.bas.bin and could not recompile.

Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly.

 

Moreover, I have found the program doesn't save settings (apart paths) when I exit.

Every time I start the program I have to flag Add bB Environment variable and Add bB compiler to system Path.

 

I have Windows 7 Utimate 32-bit.

My guess is you don't have admin rights to write to the registry which is causing those errors. I use it on Windows 7 on my personal laptop with no problems. You could try running by right clicking Run as Administrator and see if you get different results. UAC in Vista and Windows 7 can interfere if you have it really locked down.

 

-Jeff

 

I am administrator. I also tried run as administrator but nothing changes.

I think you're the first user to use on a non-English setting. I wonder if it's having trouble with the dates given month/date are swapped in the U.S. Let me check the code.

 

-Jeff

[jwierer]

Thanks to Fred Quimby and his Harmony cart, after C64 and Atari 8-bit, I want to try to program simple videogames for VCS.

 

When I start Visual bB I get this message (first part in Italian):

Cast non valido dalla stringa "10/25/2008 11:03:26 AM" al tipo 'Date'.

Try using regedit to remove HKLM\Software\VisualbB.

When I click on the Run button I get this message:

Could not locate 3_MoveASprite.bas.bin and could not recompile.

Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly.

 

Moreover, I have found the program doesn't save settings (apart paths) when I exit.

Every time I start the program I have to flag Add bB Environment variable and Add bB compiler to system Path.

 

I have Windows 7 Utimate 32-bit.

I think I found the problem, check your PM.

 

-Jeff

[+Philsan]

International date format and save settings solved with latest build, but still this message after pressing run button:

Could not locate 3_MoveASprite.bas.bin and could not recompile.

Please check to make sure it was compiled correctly.

[+Philsan]

Double post.

 

 

[+Philsan]

Thanks to Jeff I have solved the problem.

The compiler doesn't like spaces in path's directory.

[+Philsan]

DELETED.

[OfAnAwesome]

Every time I try to compile, it hangs on "Post compilation files deleted". I then get an error "Could not locate (filehere).bas.bin and could not recompile. Please check to see if it was compiled correctly." when I try to get it to run Stella. Any help would be appreciated.

[jwierer]

Every time I try to compile, it hangs on "Post compilation files deleted". I then get an error "Could not locate (filehere).bas.bin and could not recompile. Please check to see if it was compiled correctly." when I try to get it to run Stella. Any help would be appreciated.

That would mean that the bB compiler never compiled your source file. Most common problem is a space in the path to the .bas file. Alternatively you can try using an updated batch file, which I believe you can grab from here.

 

 

-Jeff

Edited January 25, 2010 by jwierer

[OfAnAwesome]

Every time I try to compile, it hangs on "Post compilation files deleted". I then get an error "Could not locate (filehere).bas.bin and could not recompile. Please check to see if it was compiled correctly." when I try to get it to run Stella. Any help would be appreciated.

That would mean that the bB compiler never compiled your source file. Most common problem is a space in the path to the .bas file. Alternatively you can try using an updated batch file, which I believe you can grab from here.

 

 

-Jeff

 

Thanks, I have tried both ways but it still gives me the same error. Going into settings and putting in the "alt batch file" didn't give me any luck.

Here's what it gave me:

Compile started at 1/24/2010 6:50:05 PM
Compiling C:\atari2600\testgame\testgame\default.bas

[jwierer]

Thanks, I have tried both ways but it still gives me the same error. Going into settings and putting in the "alt batch file" didn't give me any luck.

Here's what it gave me:

Compile started at 1/24/2010 6:50:05 PM
Compiling C:\atari2600\testgame\testgame\default.bas

1. What OS? 32bit or 64bit?

2. Are you able to compile it from the command line?

3. Are you setting the environment variables in the settings tab?

 

-Jeff