Comments for Irregular Meanderings

Comment on Nabbing PANSTARRS: Surprisingly got it. by Graham Hartland

Graham Hartland — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:34:35 +0000

well done. That’s a fair bit of processing and fiddling that is.

Comment on NotSoBASIC by zxdunny

zxdunny — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:35:42 +0000

This has just been achieved, and gained a significant speed boost as a result of using hard-abi calls to float routines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMEgAOmr7ko

The official binary package will be up shortly.

Comment on NotSoBASIC by steve

steve — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:58:32 +0000

It would be interesting to know is SpecBAS runs quicker on the latest Linux kernel which has been recompiled to use hardware floating point. Have you tried it yet?

My Raspberry Pi should be arriving in the next week or so…

Comment on NotSoBASIC by ZXDunny

ZXDunny — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:37:46 +0000

Thanks for mentioning SpecBAS

It has been ported to the Raspberry PI, but performance is quite a lot slower than on other platforms due to the ARM cpu not supporting floating point hardware very well – the Pandora version uses vfpv3, but the PI only supports v2. SpecBAS currently only uses floats for value storage, but that is due to change soon with integer support.

I’m also leaving line numbers in, as I like them :-p

Comment on NotSoBASIC by programandala.net

programandala.net — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:43:35 +0000

I suggest taking a look to the SpecBAS project by Paul Dunn (http://specbas.co.uk). It’s a BASIC interpreter based on the old ZX Spectrum’s BASIC, but much improved, more powerful and multiplatform. It is still alpha but looks quite promising. I think it soon will suit the needs you mention.

There are binary packages for Windows, Linux (Intel) and the Pandora’s Ångström (http://openpandora.org). It’s written in Free Pascal and it’s open source, so it can be compiled for other platforms as well.

In fact I’m considering SpecBAS as an alternative to SBASIC for a couple of game projects under development. The source code conversion would not be
difficult, and the benefits would be remarkable: wider audience; easier programming of sounds and graphics; and the chance to be able to contribute to an open and evolving project.

Comment on Musings on Internet dating. by steve

steve — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:24:16 +0000

Thanks for the comment Jane, one thing you said did raise one aspect:

“Well there is the “standard advice” – change your social circles… sounds trite I know but it does work! Just going to a different pub can make a difference, especially of there is an event on so people are circulating more and it is easier to talk to different people.”

This reflects the UK’s drinking culture as a way of bringing groups together. When you’re not a part of this culture it makes it a great deal more difficult.

You see, it’s more than merely going down the pub, it’s the “enjoying a bottle of wine together” side as well, which often leaves tea-totallers out in the cold, especially when finding a partner.

Comment on NotSoBASIC by steve

steve — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:17:29 +0000

I plan to base the syntax fully on SuperBASIC and then extend it.

There are a few exceptions, such as file and device access where the QL device nomenclature doesn’t fit the modern world. In this case I plan to use URI definitions instead.

I realise that the definitions I gave above were not quite SuperBASIC as I’m currently going on memory rather than reading directly from the manual. Once the design process gets further down the road I can tidy things up.

Comment on NotSoBASIC by Norman Dunbar

Norman Dunbar — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:57:40 +0000

That says more about the state of the edukashun in our country then. I was taught those in Primary School. (In Scotland – if that makes any difference.)

Cheers,
Norm.

Comment on NotSoBASIC by steve

steve — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:49:00 +0000

Yes, Python’s a bit of a horror story really, especially the structural whitespace.

As for line numbers, it’s surprising how important they can be for some people. I was talking to a friend who’s a science teacher and he recounted how many pupils couldn’t handle the concept of a logical progression.

Comment on NotSoBASIC by Norman Dunbar

Norman Dunbar — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:39:06 +0000

PPS. I agree that using a URI is a brilliant idea.

Cheers,
Norm.