Welcome to the Dartmouth
Environment Elementary Renderer, a program for emulating the
original Dartmouth BASIC compiler born in 1964. This BASIC interpreter (yes, interpreter, I cannot write a
compiler yet), is written in C, and it emulates version III of the Original
Dartmouth BASIC language of 1966 (someway more advanced than its ancestor of 1964). The interpreter is named dib (which
means Dib Is Basic). In
further versions, the emulation of the DCTS Operating System will be
integrated into the sources, as well as subsequent versions of BASIC.
Documentation
Available documentation (which is contained into the downloadable
package and is linked here for your convenience):
The dibmanual
for current version (written with gvim in text form, notes about the dib BASIC
language features)
The DCTS environment manual (written with gvim in text form) [not available for current version]
The 'concise', a 2-pages pdf document written with NeoOffice, containing:
all the BASIC versions, each with
its specific features (page 1) - !!! I expect help in bettering this page !!!
dib standard and extended features (page 2)
The BASIC primer (written with gvim in text form, containing notes about BASIC programming) [not yet ready]
Installation
The dib executable,
before use, must be compiled and installed. I suggest the following
very easy procedure in 4 steps (use the terminal):
1) Copy the package somewhere, and unpack it using tar:
$ tar zxvf dib.X.Y.Z.tgz
$ cd dib.X.Y.Z/
2) Now, choose a directory into your path, where executables will be saved; let's assume it's ~/bin (that is the subdirectory /bin in your Home directory, but you can choose any). Edit the
Makefile to customize addresses for dib (e.g., among the rest, change the install directory to ~/bin, commenting the undesired destinations and leaving uncommented ONE ONLY valid destination).
3) type the following (be sure to have gcc
installed - Note:
I compiled dib under gcc 4.X, I believe all 3.X versions will work, but I don't guarantee it):
$ make $ make
install
(the latter may require root privileges
if you try to install dib into system directories, as suggested by default in the Makefile).
For Mac Users:
in case you want to install dib into some system directory (e.g. /user/local/bin), remember that
root
privileges are not required, as long as you can access an
administrative login: in this case, after make, login as an administrator with
$ su
<name>
(being <name> the username
of the administrator) - you will be requested of a password - and then
install the software with
$ sudo make install
4) now type the following to test the correct installation:
$ dib --help
This shows the basic features of dib, and you're done! The USER/
directory is full of ready-to-run examples; read the readme files, before.
For Windows Users: Tom Lake has succeded in compiling dib under Cygwin. So I guess you can follow his path.
Download dib
Version 1.0 (July 6, 2009)
added MIN/MAX functions, operating on a variable set of arguments
added the SPC
function, to print a fixed number of spaces for altering the sequence
of zones and minizones (though these are kept for a
proper and coherent alignment).
added option -s<n>
to start running a BASIC program from line <n> (or the first line
available starting from <n>), rather than from the first in the
source code. It is equivalent to RUN <n>.
added option -p'string' to print a string which must be a BASIC expression suitable for the PRINT statement
added the semicolon as the divider among multiple assignments in a LET statement in extended mode (version 1.0.gamma let only colon and comma as dividers)
modified system error strings in the source code (this change is transparent for the user).
This is the first uploaded version (a
former beta version, complete with the bash starter, was uploaded at the previous Geocities site on Dec. 6,
2008, containing version 1.0.beta; this version is not available anymore, nor is the bash starter).
I wait for your impressions and bugs. Send me your suggestions, your considerations, your
corrections; even send me your working BASIC programs for dib,
all commented and completed with your own name and data (and six
characters at most per name): they will be part of the next package, of course.
