Show HN: Thoreau BASIC – What if BASIC hadn't gone out of fashion?
Thoreau BASIC is a modern, feature-rich programming environment that updates the classic BASIC language for contemporary hardware. It supports advanced features like 64-bit memory, multicore processing, and native x64 JIT compilation while maintaining compatibility with legacy syntax.
Why it matters
It demonstrates how legacy programming paradigms can be revitalized for modern high-performance computing and firmware development.
THOREAU_GM.TBGM · losslessly compressed wavetable · 513.5 MB
File browsers and menus are now ordinary BASIC commands. GETFILES gathers files, directories and the parent entry with an optional file mask. SELECTBOX turns a string array into a keyboard- and mouse-controlled selector, with multiple columns, optional colors, and single or double box-drawing frames.
Filenames keep their original spelling and case throughout the file commands. Masks are case-sensitive. Full paths can contain up to 4,095 bytes, including an added extension; filesystem limits on individual names still apply.
STATEWRITE and STATELOAD checkpoint selected variables to two alternating, checksummed generations. FLUSH , FILECOMMIT and FILECOPY support staged saves and verified backups. CRC32 checks byte strings, and TEXTSTATS counts words and characters in a range of a string array.
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