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[AQUARIUS] Enhanced BASIC line editing


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One really annoying thing about Aquarius BASIC is its crude line editor. The only 'editing' key provided is backspace, and once you have entered a line the only way to change it is to type the whole line again! The Microsoft Extended BASIC cartridge includes an EDIT command which is supposed to let you "quickly change program lines without having to retype everything", but uses TRS80 style editing commands which suck!

 

Here is my attempt to create the EDIT command the Aquarius should have had. It has the following features:-

 

- Left and right cursor movement via control keys CTRL-O and CTRL-P

- Delete character under cursor with CTRL-/

- Colored cursor which allows the character under it to show through.

 

The EDIT command can be invoked in 3 ways:-

1. Specify an existing line number and it will edit that line.

2. Specify a new line number and it will create the new line when you finish writing it.

3. Typing EDIT by itself gives you enhanced command line editing in immediate mode.

 

I used the CTRL-O, P and / keys because they are close to the BACKSPACE key and are not used for entering keywords or other commonly used control codes. In Virtual Aquarius I assigned these keys to the PC keyboard's Left and Right Cursor and DELETE keys.

 

The attached archive contains my extended BASIC ROM, a patched system ROM which makes the keys 'click', and source code for both. The extended BASIC ROM is based on my earlier development of Martin Steenoven's BLBASIC. I removed Martin's bootloading code and will be adding DOS and multicart ROM select functions (disabled for now) as well as other features. To differentiate it from BLBASIC I have tentatively given it a new name - BABASIC (for "Bruce Abbott's BASIC"). If you can think of a better name please tell me!

 

To run it on Virtual Aquarius; assign the system ROM to 'radofin.bin', start the emulation and load game ROM 'BABASIC.bin' while on the splash screen, then do a hard reset Don't worry about the apparent corruption below "BASIC" on the splash screen - this is just where I put the key click code. On a real Aquarius you wouldn't see it because the extended BASIC ROM takes over displaying the splash screen.

 

 

 

 

post-40459-0-30387400-1446688459_thumb.png

EDIT.zip

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I removed Martin's bootloading code and will be adding DOS and multicart ROM select functions (disabled for now) as well as other features. To differentiate it from BLBASIC I have tentatively given it a new name - BABASIC (for "Bruce Abbott's BASIC"). If you can think of a better name please tell me!

 

By removing the bootloading code this would mean to lose the ability to program on the virtual Aquarius and then convert this program to a bin file which could run on a actual Aquarius system or am I missing something here?

Edited by Aquaman
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One really annoying thing about Aquarius BASIC is its crude line editor. The only 'editing' key provided is backspace, and once you have entered a line the only way to change it is to type the whole line again! The Microsoft Extended BASIC cartridge includes an EDIT command which is supposed to let you "quickly change program lines without having to retype everything", but uses TRS80 style editing commands which suck!

 

Here is my attempt to create the EDIT command the Aquarius should have had. It has the following features:-

 

- Left and right cursor movement via control keys CTRL-O and CTRL-P

- Delete character under cursor with CTRL-/

- Colored cursor which allows the character under it to show through.

 

The EDIT command can be invoked in 3 ways:-

1. Specify an existing line number and it will edit that line.

2. Specify a new line number and it will create the new line when you finish writing it.

3. Typing EDIT by itself gives you enhanced command line editing in immediate mode.

 

I used the CTRL-O, P and / keys because they are close to the BACKSPACE key and are not used for entering keywords or other commonly used control codes. In Virtual Aquarius I assigned these keys to the PC keyboard's Left and Right Cursor and DELETE keys.

 

Although this is a great improvement on the Aquarius basic line editing capabilities, I personally think programming on a real Aquarius belongs a bit to the past. One of the reasons being the keyboard which although looks very good, is still rubbish to use. I always use the Quick type feature of the virtual Aquarius. This is great for programming in Basic and best of all I can use my own keyboard. Still I really like how you are thinking about solving all the problems the Aquarius has and indeed this is one of those.

Edited by Aquaman
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