📚 Goals/benefits of BASIC Anywhere Machine

A quick and dirty summary:

The ability to program in BASIC without installing any software (all you need is a modern standards-compliant web browser.)

• So, in regards to requirements: BAM is OS-agnostic and device-agnostic.

Put BAM where you want it and personalize it to any degree,

• Put it on the web to use it from any online device
• Store it locally to use it offline
• i.e. manage/store/use it in whatever way any TiddlyWiki can be managed/stored/used

The ability to share programs with an audience without any special requirements other than having a standards-compliant web browser.

• So, in regards to requirements: BAM is again OS-agnostic and device-agostic
• A shared program is small, as it is (via TW’s Transclusion prowess) exported as a single HTML file that contains only the BASIC program bound to the BASIC transpiler
• Example program: Keijzer Graph
• The small exported program can be emailed, can be put on a static web server, can be stored locally (for offline use), can be embedded in any other Web page (with iframe HTML elements)

Primary use cases:

• hobby programming (I.e. particularly for the children of the 70’s / 80’s and liked programming in BASIC on those home computers), whether you want to program in good old “unstructured” BASIC or “structured” BASIC, and whether or not you want to make use of some BAM-specific features
• teaching fundamental programming concepts/constructs/elements with a language (BASIC) that isn’t cluttered with annoying distractions
• creating self-contained “Web gadgets” in BASIC (because you either cannot stand the “usual suspect” programming languages for “Web gadgets”, or you could not be bothered to learn those other languages, or because you simply have a soft-spot for BASIC.)
• Example: Digital Clock

Constraints:

• BAM is not meant for “web-programming” (at most, you can create a small “Web gadget” that at most interacts with input from a user, but it will not interact with Web servers or anything outside of the BASIC program)
• BAM programs cannot interact with local file systems; however, a BAM program hosted in a TiddlyWiki instance can interact with that TiddlyWiki via local storage AND/OR parameters passed from TiddlyWiki to the BAM program (causing the BASIC program to restart via the TW refresh mechanism)

BAM is really useful for giving old BASIC programs (old-school BASIC games, for example) a new lease on life, and is really good for graphics programming (or any kind of program that does not deal with a local file system, I.e. using files for input and/or output.)

🖥 Keijzer Graph

This program is a port and mod of a PC-BASIC program by Richard Keijzer shared with the "BASIC Programming Language" Facebook group.

Although the PC-BASIC program worked in BAM as-is, I made some additions/changes to suit my fondness for animated creation of graphs and for random colours.

• Run the program
• View the source code

🖥 Guillermo's Graph (Apple II BASIC to BAM port)

This program is a port (and very slight mod) of an Apple II program, shared by Guillermo Ibáñez with the "BASIC Programming Language" Facebook group (🔗 to post).

As always, these types of simple (yet very interesting) graphics from classic BASIC dialects are fun to get working with BAM for export as stand-alone programs that work in Web browsers.  What better way to give these old programs a new lease on life by making them easy to share with folk: people just need to have a modern Web browser.  The device doesn't matter, and the operating system does not matter, and no software (other than the web browser) is needed.

• Run the program
• View the source code

🖥 Graphics to ASCII Graphics

This funny thought, from absolutely nowhere, grabbed me firmly by the jugular: how would I go about converting graphics created with graphics statements to ASCII graphics?

Here's how I decided to go about it:

• Run the program
• View the source code

🖥 Fireworks

This program is a port and mod of an Apple II program by Lee Fastenau as shared on the APPLE II PROGRAMS website.

I am a sucker for the "old-school" charm of graphics programs created with BASIC dialects of the 70's and 80's.

This APPLE II program is a gem: simple code that does something interesting.  I find it a whole bunch of fun to take this kind of program and tweak it with some easy enhancements, the kind I wish had been available back in the late 70's and early 80's on my home computers.

BASIC Anywhere Machine program:

• Run the program
• View the source code

🖥 Digital Clock

This program is a port and mod of Antoni Gual Via's program shared with the "BASIC, QBasic, GWBasic computer programming"' Facebook group.

• Run the program
• View the source code

Below:

• About the program
• How to set an LED colour preference
• How to embed the clock in a Web page
• How to download the clock to run locally or host it on your own website

About the program

Antoni Gual Via created with QBasic a "digital 7 segment clock using only DRAW."  I've made some  changes to placate my fussy nature and a little addition:

• I've filled in the segments (using PAINT, because BAM's DRAW statement does not support the "p" (paint) command
• I'm using screen mode 17 instead of screen mode 12 (for the LED: access to 63 predefined colors, instead of only 15 colors; black is reserved for the clock background colour)
• I'm also using a custom screen resolution
• I've also modified the program to check the URL for a "color" query string which can be used to customize the colour of the clock LED lights.

How to set an LED colour preference

This program has been exported from BASIC Anywhere Machine as a "Stand-Alone" program.  It is a small HTML file that contains the source code "bound" to the BASIC-to-javascript transpiler (BAM's built-in fork of wwwBASIC.)  That HTML file can then exist anywhere: on a local storage device for running offline, on a static web server for running as a stand-alone Web Page, or on a Web server for inclusion (as a "gadget?") into any other Web page or Web site.

To use a colour other than the default, add a "color" parameter to the URL.

For example, using the program I have hosted on my Neocities site:

• The URL for the program without specifying a colour preference
• https://basicanywheremachine.neocities.org/sample_programs/DRAW%20DIGITAL%20CLOCK.prod.run
• The URL for the program with a colour preference specified
• https://basicanywheremachine.neocities.org/sample_programs/DRAW%20DIGITAL%20CLOCK.prod.run?color=15

See this documentation page to find the color codes for the pre-defined available colors for screen mode 17 (the "p256" colour mode found in the "colour modes" section after the list of screen modes.)

How to embed the clock in a Web page

(Creating BAM programs that can be embedded in Web pages, it is a fun way to give good old BASIC a useful purpose!)

To embed this BAM program in another Web Page or Web site, here's how to do that with an HTML iframe:

<iframe src="https://basicanywheremachine.neocities.org/sample_programs/DRAW%20DIGITAL%20CLOCK.prod.run" style="width:300px;height:100px;">

</iframe>

Here is a screenshot of the result in TiddlyWiki :

How to download the clock to run locally or host it on your own website

Somewhere in your browser's menus, find something like "Save Page as".

For my Web browser, I then choose to save the file as a "Webpage, HTML only".

Wherever you save that file locally, double-clicking on it should open the file in your Web browser, and the clock program should start running immediately.

Aside:  The Chrome web browser on my Chromebook allows setting up an HTML page as an "app", so that the HTML page appears as a stand-alone application, instead of a Web browser tab.  The Chromebook remembers the location and size of the clock program.  Neat !

🖥 Swirl of Orbs

This program is a port and mod of a Turbo Basic program shared by Shahid Altaf Qureshi with the BASIC Programming Language group on Facebook (🔗 link to post).

• Run the program
• View the source code