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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : A MMbasic editor, compiler and runtime for Windows and Linux
| Author | Message | ||||
| matherp Guru  Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 11818 |
# pc3host 0.8.0 - the Pico Computer 3's BASIC, on a PC https://github.com/UKTailwind/pc3host/releases/tag/v0.8.0 Two packages, one for Linux and one for Windows. Both carry the same thing: Based on the the Pico Computer 3's own Fuzix toolchain, built from the machine's own sources, running on a PC. You write MMBasic using the standard MMBasic editor `mmbedit`, `cc` compiles it, and it runs in a window that is the PC3's screen - the kernel's display code, its keyboard decoder and its sound engine, compiled into a small server that plays the part the kernel plays on the board. A program that runs here runs on the board, and it draws the same pixels: the graphics tests are compared against images captured from the machine itself. | `pc3host_0.8.0_amd64.deb` | Debian, Ubuntu, Mint and their kin | | `pc3host-0.8.0-win64.zip` | Windows 10 or later, 64-bit | ## Linux ``` sudo dpkg -i pc3host_0.8.0_amd64.deb ``` Everything but the display server is statically linked, so it installs on any distribution of that age or newer; the server needs the X11 libraries, which a desktop already has. It puts itself under `/opt/pc3` and links the names a PC has no other use for into `/usr/bin`. The compiler is called `cc`, as it is on the board, and that name is deliberately not taken from your system. Use `pc3` to get a shell with the PC3's tools first on the PATH, or `pc3cc` to call the compiler directly: ``` pc3 # a shell with the tools first cc -r /opt/pc3/share/examples/gfx1.bas ``` ## Windows Unpack the zip anywhere - your Documents folder is fine - and run **`install.cmd`** inside it. It puts the tools on your account's PATH and tells Windows that a `.bc` file is a program. No administrator rights are needed, nothing is copied into Windows itself, and `uninstall.cmd` beside it undoes both. **Open a new command prompt afterwards**: the one you have still holds the old environment. To try it without changing anything, run `pc3.cmd` instead, which opens a prompt with the tools on its PATH for as long as that window is open. Windows will not know the programs and will say so the first time: they carry no signature. Right-click the zip, tick **Unblock** in its Properties before extracting, and you will be asked less. A machine running Smart App Control, or under a Device Guard policy, refuses unsigned programs outright and there is nothing in the package that can change that. ## The first five minutes, on either ``` cc -r hello.bas build it and run it cc hello.bas build it: hello.bc bcrun hello.bc run what you built mmbedit hello.bas the editor; F2 saves, builds and runs ``` On Windows a built program is also `.\hello.bc` in a command prompt, or a double click in Explorer. It will not run as a bare `hello`: a `.bc` is not a Windows executable, it is a file that `bcrun` runs, the way the `#!` line has the board run it. The editor is `mmbedit`, not `mmedit`: MMEdit is Jim Hiley's Windows IDE for MMBasic and this is not it. Things to try, wherever the package put its examples (`/opt/pc3/share` or `share\` in the folder you unpacked): ``` cc -r share/examples/gfx1.bas a picture cc -r share/examples/keydemo.bas the keyboard cc -r share/examples/pc3bench.bas what each kind of thing costs here cc -r share/examples/samples/breakout.bas breakout game using tilemap cc -r share/examples/samples/bubble.bas bubble universe ``` The Windows package also has **`selftest.cmd`**: it compiles the eclipse predictor - 3,213 lines of real astronomy - with the shipped compiler, checks its output to the last digit, and then opens the window. ## What is in box The compiler and its passes, the BASIC translator, the bytecode runtime, the editor, the image loaders, the four audio players and the display server. Beside them: 83 sample programs, the 112 test programs with the output each must produce, the whole translator source, the manuals, and the test scripts. ## What is not The board's hardware. There are no pins on a PC, so `SETPIN`, `PIN`, `I2C`, `SPI`, `PWM`, the counting inputs and the real-time clock registers answer "not available" rather than pretending. Everything else - graphics, sound, the keyboard, files, and the `WEB` family over your machine's own network - is real. Timing is the other difference worth knowing. Frame pacing is a timer rather than a monitor's vertical blanking, and a graphics statement here is a message to the display server where on the board it is a register write, so a program that races the frame will feel slightly different. `pc3bench.bas` measures it on the machine in front of you. |
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| tgerbic Senior Member  Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 122 |
Just get a 404 on that link. |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 11818 |
works for me and I've checked it is definitely public |
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homa Guru Joined: 05/11/2021 Location: GermanyPosts: 684 |
Hello Peter, I’ve tried this on win11: ...\pc3host>pc3.cmd ")" kann syntaktisch an dieser Stelle nicht verarbeitet werden. Translated: ")" cannot be processed syntactically at this point. The selftest.cmd file worked perfectly. Matthias |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3875 |
Works for me in Canada: What a world we live in. (MMBasic World) ~ Edited 2026-09-07 04:33 by lizby PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on FOTS |
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javavi Guru Joined: 01/10/2023 Location: UkrainePosts: 603 |
I wish it were possible to program the world of TIC-80 in MMBasic. https://tic80.com/ It understands a variety of scripting languages, but so far it's only unknown about MMBasic. DISPLAY 240x136 pixels, 16 colors palette. INPUT 4 gamepads with 8 buttons / mouse / keyboard. SPRITES 256 8x8 tiles and 256 8x8 sprites. MAP 240x136 cells, 1920x1088 pixels. SOUND 4 channels with configurable waveforms. CODE 64KB of lua, ruby, js, moon, fennel, scheme, squirrel, wren, wasm, janet or python. https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80 The TIC-80 community says that with enough determination and skill, you can add support for your favorite programming language to this fantasy computer project. I like MMBasic and would like to make a couple of demos for the TIC-80 using it too. Edited 2026-09-07 05:14 by javavi |
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| tgerbic Senior Member Joined: 25/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 122 |
Can reach it now. Charter/Spectrum is in the middle of a network upgrade in my area. Maybe a DNS problem. |
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| gadgetjack Senior Member Joined: 15/07/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 236 |
I have tried it on a few programs and games. It works on picovaders but chokes on frogger and gnr. Has problem with redefined character sets and defining "Break". Pretty cool so far. |
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