New community dev tool uploaded: Basic Label Compiler for Windows

Johan Kårlin · Post by **Johan Kårlin** » Mon Nov 08, 2021 9:27 pm

Basic Label Compiler for Windows

Writing BASIC programs longer than 10 rows on the X16 is a tedious experience. The text editor is very limited, much is about struggling with row numbers. This is an extremely simple compiler (sort of at least) for Windows that lets you write your BASIC programs in your favourite text editor with labels. The compiler outputs a new text file with the extension ".bas". It adds row numbers and fills in the right row number after the commands "GOTO", "GOSUB" and "THEN".

No installation is needed, just copy the only file to the directory of your choice.

Usage: x16LabelCompiler <filename> [first row number] [step between row numbers]

Labels must end with a colon (":").

Labels must not be reserved keywords in BASIC.

Labels are preserved in the generated code by inserting "REM" before them.

Empty rows are removed.

All letters are converted to uppercase.

A sample program called "guess_the_number.txt" is included.

To compile the program: x16LabelCompiler guess_the_number.txt

To start the emulator, load the generated file and run it immediately: x16emu -bas guess_the_number.bas -run

Submitter

Johan Kårlin

Submitted

11/08/21

Category

Dev Tools

ZeroByte · Post by **ZeroByte** » Mon Nov 08, 2021 11:41 pm

That's pretty cool.

SlithyMatt · Post by **SlithyMatt** » Tue Nov 09, 2021 9:57 pm

Next stop: Native QBasic on the X16.

Johan Kårlin · Post by **Johan Kårlin** » Sat Jan 01, 2022 8:23 pm

On 11/9/2021 at 10:57 PM, SlithyMatt said:

Next stop: Native QBasic on the X16.

QBasic is still beyond the horizon but I have made some improvements in v 2.0. ?

mobluse · Post by **mobluse** » Sat Jan 01, 2022 11:30 pm

There is a similar tool that runs in e.g. Linux: autonum.sh in https://github.com/mobluse/ratbas2

And this too but in Perl for Unix and probably Linux:

There are also similar tools that runs in X16:

Johan Kårlin · Post by **Johan Kårlin** » Sun Jan 02, 2022 8:44 am

Yes there are some developer tools that are more or less essential. You end upp making them yourselves or finding what someone else has already made. This is one example. I have made another tool - XPngConverter - for converting graphics, that's another. Good thing there's alternatives. A problem for all spare-time-developers is to really finish something. Perhaps can my contribution be making a (nearly) finished product which is quite polished. In this case I tried to succeed by keeping the list of features short. ?