Commodore Emulators

[Albert Cahalan]

Ed Montgomery writes:

> I have found this to be an EXCELLENT commodore
> machines emulator, which I've run on several linux
> distros :-)

Maybe a fresh new BASIC would be better. It could certainly run
much faster than one going through two levels of interpretation.

The thought had already crossed my mind in fact. I think I can
make it outperform Python; I have a bit of x86 JIT experience.
(though actually one can write a regular compiler)

A live view of the stack would really help people learn.

I see 3 ways to do graphics:

1. expose the native 1200x900 (maybe a portion of it)
2. let the user choose, then scale coordinates
3. vector representation with scale-to-fit

Color numbers might be 24-bit or 3-digit decimal. The former
can represent more, while the latter is really easy to use.

One can make a nice parser with Antlr. Since such parsers indicate
the character position of an error, it is possible to show where
an error occurs as the user is typing.

I like the Atari syntax, but would of course want to support
Microsoft's string features as well. Unicode is a must.

For fun, CLOAD can be run over the audio ports. One could
stick to the standard format, which survives the frequency
dependant phase shift of a magnetic tape, or do something
more modern.

Question: if I jump from one for..next loop to another
with a goto, where do I go when I hit the second "next"?
I just tried two of the interpreters in Debian, and they
didn't do the same thing.

Of course, a truly bad-ass hacker would rip the FORTH out of
the firmware, putting BASIC where it rightfully belongs.