Robert M's Blog - bBasic - Hello World

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For my first bBasic program I choose to stay with tradition and write a Hello World program. For non-programmers reading this, there is a bit of a tradition in programming with a new language to start with a simple program that simply outputs "Hello World" to the user.

 

Goals:

-> Minimal source code size

-> Simple white text on a black background.

-> no user interaction.

 

Design:

-> Use the standard bBasic kernel to render an asymetrical playfield image of "Hello World". The 32 pixel resolution requires a less than pretty font to show 10 characters, but that is a problem common to all VCS programs and not exclusive to bBasic.

 

Implementation:

helloworld.txt ( 1.23K )

Number of downloads: 0

 

 

helloworld.txt.bin ( 4K )

Number of downloads: 0

 

 

Lessons learned:

-> Remarks need to be indented!

-> Labels can not be followed by a colon like in DASM.

 

Recommendations for improving bBasic:

-> Looking at the .asm output from the compiler I see that the entire language library is included even if I never use most of the functions. Randomize for example and all the PF scroll functions are included in the image even though I didn't use them. I understand why this was done, but it would greatly reduce ROM consumption if unused functions were not included leaving more room for user defined code.

 

Up Next:

-> Can we do PF height animations?

 

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