Mark Simonson Posted July 7, 2022 Share Posted July 7, 2022 (edited) I'm new at FastBasic, and I've run into a roadblock before I've barely started. I can't seem to find an answer anywhere. To learn it, I'm converting one of my old BASIC XL programs, which includes a title screen in GR. 2. I assume the graphics modes work the same as in other Atari BASICs, but I can't seem to display anything in GR. 2. The GR. 2 part of the screen at the top is just black. PRINT statements only seem to affect the GR. 0 "window" at the bottom of the screen. I've tried PUT, but that doesn't seems to work either. I've also tried "PRINT #6;", which just gives a parsing error. Nothing. I've looked through the documentation for FastBasic, but it seems to imply that graphics modes should work just like other BASICs. Am I missing something obvious? Edited July 7, 2022 by Mark Simonson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitoco Posted July 7, 2022 Share Posted July 7, 2022 Try a comma instead of a semi colon in the "PRINT #6". GR.2 ?#6,"Hello" Remember that there are no line numbers, no GOTO, no GOSUB, no THEN <num>, etc... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 7, 2022 Author Share Posted July 7, 2022 Pfff! The one thing I hadn't tried yet. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 7, 2022 Author Share Posted July 7, 2022 One other thing: I noticed that GR. 2+16 doesn't seem to work. I get a GR. 0 screen if I do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitoco Posted July 7, 2022 Share Posted July 7, 2022 It works... I guess it is returning to GR.0 when you print to chanel 0 (without a #6) or when the program finishes, because there is no GR.0 text window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 7, 2022 Author Share Posted July 7, 2022 Ah, okay. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted July 7, 2022 Share Posted July 7, 2022 Looking forward to try your program Mark. FastBasic is really good, I use it too but I have a fraction of Vitoco's knowledge ah ah. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 7, 2022 Author Share Posted July 7, 2022 (edited) It's too bad it lacks an immediate mode (unless I'm missing something). That's one thing I like about other BASICs. It's often useful to work with a language interactively to try things out or to inspect variables after a run. Otherwise, I like it a lot. Edited July 7, 2022 by Mark Simonson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitoco Posted July 7, 2022 Share Posted July 7, 2022 You are not missing it. There is no immediate mode, as the source code is "compiled" to be run. Neither can you resume a stopped program when the break key is used. And you are also right. When I need to inspect variables or something else, if I cannot use Altirra's debugger, I have to insert code to display variables in the source and run, then remove it or comment out. But it is not a pain anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 13 hours ago, Mark Simonson said: It's too bad it lacks an immediate mode (unless I'm missing something). You have to treat it like any compiled language i.e. C, Pascal even assembler, generally if I can't print to screen during the run to determine variable, you can monitor using a debugger, failing that I tend to store variable values at know addresses and inspect them after the run, not ideal, but it does work as @vitoco indicates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, TGB1718 said: You have to treat it like any compiled language i.e. C, Pascal even assembler Yeah, I realized that pretty quickly, and it makes sense. It didn't take too long to convert a ~200 line BASIC XL program to FastBasic. I have to say, the the program flow in the FastBasic version is much clearer (due to its structured nature) and easier to read (I love using whitespace). Edited July 8, 2022 by Mark Simonson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitoco Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 I guess that you are using the IDE in the Atari (or emulator). If so, for large programs, you can use the crosscompiler from a command line in PC environments to create an XEX of your program. This way, you can use your preferred text editor, including those with syntax highlighting and autoindent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 (edited) Yeah, that would be great, but I pretty much only use Macs, which I've known for a long time puts me at a disadvantage with regard to Atari emulation, crosscompilers, etc. Not an insoluble problem, I know. ? Edited July 8, 2022 by Mark Simonson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FifthPlayer Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, Mark Simonson said: Yeah, that would be great, but I pretty much only use Macs, which I've known for a long time puts me at a disadvantage with regard to Atari emulation, crosscompilers, etc. Not an insoluble problem, I know. ? There's a macOS version of the cross-compiler. Edited July 8, 2022 by FifthPlayer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 8, 2022 Author Share Posted July 8, 2022 Oh, right, I noticed that at some point. I only see instructions for use on Windows and Linux. I'm guessing the Linux instructions should work on MacOS? I guess I'm thinking of those fancy crosscompilers on Windows that integrate an emulator, such as WUDSN IDE (which even uses my Atari TrueType fonts :-). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 9, 2022 Author Share Posted July 9, 2022 (edited) Another dumb question: Is it possible to enter ATASCII graphics characters in the FastBasic editor? The control key seems to be used exclusively for entering commands, blocking the typing of graphics characters. Is there a way around this? UPDATE: Never mind. Discovered that the escape key allows it. Edited July 9, 2022 by Mark Simonson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 Mad Studio is a nice integrated development environment (scroll to find latest version). Perhaps you already know that you can design bitmap images with Atari Graphics Studio, player-missile graphics with SprEd, characters with Atari FontMaker or Atari Font Creator. Unfortunately all those programs run on Windows (SprEd apart). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClausB Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 19 hours ago, Mark Simonson said: I love using whitespace Did you mean bluespace? 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 9, 2022 Author Share Posted July 9, 2022 4 hours ago, Philsan said: Mad Studio is a nice integrated development environment (scroll to find latest version). Perhaps you already know that you can design bitmap images with Atari Graphics Studio, player-missile graphics with SprEd, characters with Atari FontMaker or Atari Font Creator. Unfortunately all those programs run on Windows. Makes me want to buy a cheap PC... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DjayBee Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 Wasn't SprEd browser based and therefore platform independent? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 5 hours ago, DjayBee said: Wasn't SprEd browser based and therefore platform independent? Yes, post corrected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FifthPlayer Posted July 9, 2022 Share Posted July 9, 2022 11 hours ago, Mark Simonson said: Makes me want to buy a cheap PC... WUDSN does run on Mac (it's built on Eclipse, which is cross-platform) and you could probably put together a working dev environment using WUDSN (or some other Mac editor), the FastBasic cross-compiler and the Atari800 emulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Simonson Posted July 10, 2022 Author Share Posted July 10, 2022 Interesting! I didn't realize. I'll check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdefabri Posted July 28, 2022 Share Posted July 28, 2022 I'm going to try my hand at FastBasic too - I see the documentation on the GitHub, are there any other tutorials (maybe on YouTube) that I can leverage? I have an idea for a game, I think it could be (fairly) easy to make...probably in my capabilities. Since I'm reasonably familiar with BASIC, as well as C / C++, I think FastBasic could be something I could learn quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Payne Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 On 7/9/2022 at 12:10 AM, Philsan said: Perhaps you already know that you can design bitmap images with Atari Graphics Studio, player-missile graphics with SprEd, characters with Atari FontMaker or Atari Font Creator. Unfortunately all those programs run on Windows (SprEd apart). I just downloaded Atari Graphics Studio on Window 10 and I've noticed some issues. For one, if I have a drawing up and select the pallet, the image got completely erased so I chose to change the pallet before I drew anything. I then saved the file last night (.MIC), which wasn't blank and and loaded it up today and now it's blank. I then created a new image (w: 160, h: 192, 4 color) to test this out but this time I saved it as a .AGS. When I loaded it up, again, blank again but the pallet it now 64 colors, not 4 like it created it with. I'm using version 3.5.7. Have you experienced these kind of bugs before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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