NOTES ABOUT CURRENT VERSION There are problems using some versions of gcc on some platforms. In case Blassic core dumps on exiting or when a program has an error, compile it using -O0 The regular expression functions are not supported under windows. The bidirectional POPEN may or may not work on windows depending on the windows version used. Now configure admits several options: --disable-graphics to compile without graphics support and --disable-curses to compile without curses nor ncurses. In the last case, CLS, LOCATE and other instructions when used in text mode are silently ignored. In the former, trying to enter in graphics mode generates an error. If curses is enabled, first ncurses is tested, if not available curses is used instead. The --disable-ncurses option skips the ncurses test and uses always curses. When configuring for unix/linux, using --without-x has the same effect as --disable-graphics. For windows is ignored. Several scripts to call configure are provided, see the do_conf* files. NOTES ABOUT CROSS-COMPILING BLASSIC The cross-compiling has been simplified in Blasic 0.10.0, it must now automatically use the native compiler to create gencharset. If this fails you can manually compile it, or create a dummy, it does not need to be executed unless the charset data files are modified. * * * To run the test of dynamic linking of functions do: make testdl.so ./blassic testdl On windows with Borland C++ Builder build the project testdl and do: blassic testdl There is no other documentation than the testdl.cpp source, sorry. * * * BASIC /bay'-sic/ n. A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many years was the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers. Edsger W. Dijkstra observed in "Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective" that "It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." This is another case (like Pascal) of the cascading lossage that happens when a language deliberately designed as an educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can write short BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily; writing anything longer (a) is very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits that will make it harder to use more powerful languages well. This wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end micros in the 1980s. As it is, it probably ruined tens of thousands of potential wizards. "The new hacker's dictionary" I disagree with this point of view, but... ***************************** ** You have been warned! ** ***************************** (C) 2001-2005 Julián Albo julian.notfound@gmail.com