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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Thoreau BASIC - UEFI BASIC
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| Frank N. Furter Guru  Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 1150 |
Have you heard of Thoreau BASIC yet? It's a pretty interesting development. https://tarjan.itch.io/thoreaubasic It runs entirely without an operating system under UEFI and is modeled after GWBASIC. Many features don't work yet, but some already do. - "Secure Boot" must be disabled in the BIOS. - On a FAT32 USB flash drive, you must create a folder named "EFI" with a subfolder named "BOOT." - Copy the BASIC.efi file there and rename it to BOOTX64.efi. - When you start the computer, press F12 and select the UEFI stick to boot from - BASIC will start immediately. I think this is a great project, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops. Frank |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9075 |
So pretty much like MMBasic but for bigger hardware then. :) Yep, interesting concept. I hope to goodness it doesn't get developed to the point where it can introduce insecurities into UEFI. That would be "a bad thing". Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| llovhaug Newbie  Joined: 07/07/2026 Location: United StatesPosts: 7 |
While the concept is interesting, and of course it is early in its lifecycle, to compare this to MMBasic is kind of like comparing a talented primary school athlete to a world class professional one. I mean the sophistication of MMBasic and its documentation go so far beyond this GWBasic clone they are not really comparable. Sure, they both are examples of "boot to BASIC" emblematic of the early microcomputers many of us cut our teeth on, but I for one do not want to ever go back to line number driven programming, short variable names, the lack of a network stack, limited I/O etc. Now if someone with a lot more talent than I were to port MMBasic to use this UEFI approach, then I personally get a lot more interested. But yes, the notion is clever. |
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mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 514 |
They also provide a virtual disk image to run in VirtualBox. That's a lot easier to set up if you want to just play with it. That is what I'm going to do. It's nice if you really want to update it. All you need to do is download the newest image. And swap it in the virtual entry and you're automatically booting the new version. They call me Shai-Hulud (The maker) |
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| grumpyoldgeek Regular Member  Joined: 30/07/2018 Location: United StatesPosts: 56 |
I've worked with compiled BASIC and assembly language on DOS machines for 25 years. There's virtually nothing they can do that a Picomite can. It's hard to see much of a use for it. |
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phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3358 |
The key words there are "do" and "use". It appears to be a Retro Computing project so is more about nostalgia and related emotions, so it doesn't need to have a use or do anything other than revive old memories. As you imply a task that is big enough to justify using a PC instead of a PicoMite to do it would likely be beyond GWBasic. |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2543 |
running on an x86-64 PC, with next-to-no underlying operating system, your interpreter has available to it gigabytes of RAM and gigahertz of comutrons. i am sure there are a multitude of tasks such a configuration could handle which would be way beyond the resources practically available to a RP2350. cheers, rob :-) |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4369 |
True, but MMB4W / MMB4L does that and as a normal user task with the usual OS facilities as well. John |
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| ville56 Guru Joined: 08/06/2022 Location: AustriaPosts: 562 |
IMHO with a more modern (UEFI) computer to run it on, it is a waste of resources. The interpreter can probably run only on 1 core, leaving n-1 cores unused. I don't think it is able to start more than 1 thread either. At least for the moment, maybe there will be language extensions later to support multithreading. 73 de OE1HGA, Gerald |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9075 |
It's a fun project and I think the guy deserves credit for even attempting it. Whether it's efficient or of any actual *use* is immaterial really, the fun is in doing it. There are easier ways to get an auto start BASIC interpreter running almost invisibly I'm sure, (fond memories of config.sys and autoexec.bat), but to use UEFI is something a bit different. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2054 |
I wonder...I/O? No HAL to deal with? This is why DOS still rocks on the PC. |
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