Coding and testing Atari BASIC on Mac

[55five66six]

Hi all! 

 

My current setup is using VS Code for ASM, then using mads compiler to compile to an xex file, then Atari800MacX to open the resulting xex file. The setup I have works for assembler, but is there anything I can do for FOURTH or BASIC to run? Or would I to need to compile to an xex somehow?  

[Rybags]

If the emu supports H: device where files are directly accessed rather than using disk image then it should be possible.

In the case you mention though you'd want to deal with text files and LIST / ENTER them in Basic.

And for this to function well it's desirable to have the ASCII / ATASCII translation available - emus like Atari800Win+ use devices H5:... H8: for this.

But that said you can stil encounter problems with the likes of graphics characters - they're unique to the Atari and use codes which are usually just control codes for stuff like linefeed, carriage return etc which we do by other means.

[+MrFish]

What @Rybags said, and...

 

You have several choices -- all of which are covered by tools developed by @dmsc -- for not having to deal with line numbers, and for other BASIC cross-paltform development benefits.

 

TBXL-Parser covers Turbo-BASIC XL and Atari BASIC.

 

FastBASIC is his newly created BASIC language for the Ataris.

 

I have language highlighter files for Turbo-BASIC XL (which also covers Atari BASIC), for several different editors (Crimson Edit, ConTEXT, and Notepad++). I currently use Notepad++; because it can be configured with its command-line Exec tool to parse the files (to a desired location) and highlight errors within the source, using a single keystroke.

 

[Edit] I forgot, Crimson Edit, ConTEXT, and Notepad++ are all Windows only apps. So, you'll need another route for your editor; but, TBXL / Atari BASIC Parser and FastBASIC are both available for the Macintosh.

 

[55five66six]

Cool! Thank you both! I'll give both a try.