[Coco] Basic09 Level 3

[Wayne Campbell]

I have thought about modifications to Basic09 much through the years. DCom,
while it began as a meager attempt to unravel I-Code and give me my source
code back, became the container for all I wanted to do to make Basic09
better and more powerful. Since coming back to it in 2009, DCom has been
replaced by unpack, which still isn't completed and is currently in the
form of decode. As I pondered the features I wanted to see in Basic09, it
became clear that what really needs to be done is to rewrite Basic09 to
accommodate new features and more powerful functions. Below is what I have
thought of.

1. Replace the internal editor with a editing module that runs in a
separate window. While I am not able to give all the details of how to do
it, I believe that a combination of pipes and the use of a data module
makes it possible for the error checking in Basic09 to communicate with
(and pass data between) itself and the editor.

2. Using the internal debug mode as a guide, create a separate debug module
that also runs in its own window and communicates with Basic09 through
pipes and the data module, but also allows for debugging packed I-Code in
addition to unpacked I-Code.

3. TYPEs in Basic09 seem to run into problems once you reach three levels
of depth. What this means is:

Record.field.field.field

may not work as expected. I know that when passing a field of that depth as
a parameter to a called procedure, the value of the field does not get
resolved. Instead you get the value of the pointer to that field. As the
manuals for Basic09 do not hint at or specify a maximum depth, and indeed
seem to suggest that you can go as many levels deep as memory will allow, I
consider this to be a bug, but others may disagree.

4. Add a HEX$() function. There would need to be two versions, BYTE/INTEGER
and REAL.

5. Basic09 creates three tables for each procedure. They are the variable
reference table, the branch reference table, and the comments table. When
you pack the procedure(s), all of these tables are destroyed. I would like
to see an option that allows these tables to be saved to disk before being
destroyed. This would make decoding packed I-Code much easier, and would
allow for the restoration of original variable names and line numbers. At
the same time, I would like to see named labels and named constants added
to Basic09.

I am sure I have forgotten something. When it comes to me, I will post it
as a reply to this post.

Wayne

-- 
The Structure of I-Code
http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/The_Structure_of_I-Code

decode
http://cococoding.com/wayne/