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Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:11 pm
by Gazzapper
Agree that INVERSE could be removed

Would add:
MID$(str$,start, length)
or
SPRITE command for UDG placement at pixel coords

(sprite being my pref!)

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 6:14 pm
by equinox
Ralf: hmmm, you realise that good disk systems used those commands too? Not just the microdrive. (Like Opus, Disciple, Plus D, +3 disk, etc.)

SPRITE sounds very sweet but it really needs hardware support... Speccy can't do sprites very well.

Hmm, I increasingly think I should have called this thread "let's reinvent Andy Wright's Beta BASIC".

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:51 am
by Joefish
Get rid of VAL$ and have RENUMBER.
Get rid of FLASH and let us have separate BRIGHT bits for INK and PAPER (although that takes some ULA changes too).
Also need the PRINT command to actually move the print position one character up/down/left/right when you print a cursor character. Or at least a code that will move to the next line but at the last specified horizontal position, for printing 2x2 and 3x3 UDG sprites.
Make DRAW absolute, not relative.
Get rid of DEF FN and have a command to scroll the screen one character up/down/left/right.
Get rid of FN and have a command to copy a block of data from one memory location to another.
Have a system variable that lets you divert printing, drawing, etc. to another address in memory.

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:49 pm
by AndyC
Remove FLASH because it's horrific, add in a FILL for flood filling regions of the screen.

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:22 pm
by R-Tape
AndyC wrote: Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:49 pm Remove FLASH because it's horrific,
Do you mean the command only, or the property as well?
add in a FILL for flood filling regions of the screen.
Good call, as long as it's not painfully slow.

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:35 pm
by Morkin
+1 for getting rid of FLASH, the most you'd probably miss out on would be animated loading screens.

Not sure what extra I might have wanted in BASIC in the 80s (except more memory and speed).

A few people have mentioned sprite related commands, maybe some sort of PRINT MASK command to allow you to print characters, UDGs over restorable backgrounds?

Code: Select all

PRINT MASK AT 10,10;"X"
...a bit like OVER 1, but on PRINTing it'd store the original 8 bits in that character square somewhere, and restore them at next PRINT MASK command.

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:55 pm
by AndyC
R-Tape wrote: Mon Jan 14, 2019 7:22 pm
AndyC wrote: Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:49 pm Remove FLASH because it's horrific,
Do you mean the command only, or the property as well?
I'd happily lose both.

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:15 am
by ZXDunny
Remove FLASH gets my vote, but not only is there a new keyword available - now you also have another bit in your attrs to be used for summats else.

New keyword would be COMPILE addr,n$ which dumps a compiled BASIC statement to an address in memory. Would be handy for so many things to speed up those slow bits of BASIC a touch.

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:02 am
by equinox
Oh god, for a while I didn't dare to check on this thread again, but I'm glad I did.

Joefish: this wasn't "let's sneakily fix every bug in the ROM"!
Dunny: this wasn't "can we slowly turn ZX BASIC into LISP before anyone notices" (but nice try)!
AndyC wins the big prize for "remove FLASH because it's horrific" because, haha, it really is, and the way he phrased it made me laugh. Are you Andy Cadley from css?

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:50 am
by AndyC
equinox wrote: Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:02 am Oh god, for a while I didn't dare to check on this thread again, but I'm glad I did.

Joefish: this wasn't "let's sneakily fix every bug in the ROM"!
Dunny: this wasn't "can we slowly turn ZX BASIC into LISP before anyone notices" (but nice try)!
AndyC wins the big prize for "remove FLASH because it's horrific" because, haha, it really is, and the way he phrased it made me laugh. Are you Andy Cadley from css?
Guilty as charged. And it is horrific.

Re: Plus one, minus one

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:54 am
by equinox
A little-known crime committed by the Bas**rd FLASH was: let's design the entire font to fit in 6x6 instead of 8x8, so that it won't be weird and asymmetrical when we flash it.

As a result, the Spectrum font has @ ~ $ that even a mother couldn't love.