QA findings from a multi-round review of the FreeDOS submission prep work:
- TUI rendering refactor: src/tui.c emitted ANSI escape sequences via
printf, which displays as raw text on bare FreeDOS (no ANSI.SYS).
Add four HAL ops (tui_enter, tui_leave, render_run, set_cursor_shape)
and route per-cell rendering through them. POSIX backend keeps the
ANSI path; DOS backend drives BIOS INT 10h via the existing
bios_set_cursor / bios_write_char helpers. The TUI's logical cursor
goes through the saved orig_locate to avoid recursing through the
swapped-in gw_hal->locate.
- DOS extended-key mapping: dos_getch returns 0x100 | scancode for
arrows / F-keys; tui_read_key wasn't translating those to its TK_*
constants, so the editor never saw arrow keys or F1-F10 on DOS.
Add a __MSDOS__-conditional translation table in tui_read_key.
- Version banner: GW_VERSION was still 0.16.0 even though the v0.17.0
release prep was already in CHANGES.TXT. Bump.
- Compiler PulseAudio link: gwbasic-compile -c hardcoded
'-lgwrt -lm -lpthread' on the gcc command line. When libgwrt was
built against libpulse-simple (the default on any host with the
PulseAudio dev headers installed), the compile workflow failed with
'undefined reference to pa_simple_drain'. CMake now passes
GWRT_HAS_PULSEAUDIO to gwbasic-compile when libpulse is present, and
the compiler appends -lpulse-simple to the link line.
- FRE("") garbage collection: the interpreter skipped strpool_gc with a
comment 'unsafe during expression eval', but that's exactly what real
GW-BASIC's FRE("") does (and the AOT compiler path already did). Add
the GC call; strpool_pin/unpin is the existing escape hatch if a
caller has live pool pointers on the C stack. Fixes the string_gc
compat test.
- Test harness normalization: run_tests.sh stripped trailing whitespace
on the actual output but not the expected file, causing spurious
mismatches against golden files captured from real GWBASIC.EXE.
Normalize both sides identically. Fixes the peek_gfx mismatch.
- Print_using: snprintf into mantissa[32] with %.*f and an unbounded
dec triggered a -Wformat-truncation warning. Clamp dec to 20 (IEEE
double has at most ~17 significant decimal digits).
- Doc/version consistency: 16-bit binary size reported as 127KB in one
place and 128KB in three; standardize on 128KB. HAL backend count
said '1 file' but is now 2. CI test count said 'all 66 test
programs' but is 72. Add a v0.17.0 row to the development.md table.
Update getting-started.md DOS section to match the BIOS-rendering
reality and add a manual TUI verification checklist.
- dos_init now writes back BIOS-reported cols/rows to dos_hal struct
fields (forward-declared so dos_init can reference it).
After these changes: 72/72 interpreter tests pass, compat 68/68
matched, no warnings on the Linux build.
Fix 6 crash paths when TUI screen buffer allocation fails (common on
16-bit DOS due to near-heap exhaustion):
- main.c: REPL and AUTO mode fall back to fgets-based line reader
- tui.c: tui_key_on/off/list return early if tui.screen is NULL
Add DOS build documentation to getting-started.md (16-bit and 32-bit
targets, running on FreeDOS). Fix stale version string (0.14.0 -> 0.16.0).
Remove Unicode em dashes (U+2014) and en dashes (U+2013) from all
Markdown files. Use ASCII -- for parenthetical breaks and - for
hyphenation, matching standard plain-text conventions.
Binary tokenized SAVE/LOAD now stores float constants in Microsoft Binary
Format (MBF) on disk, matching original GWBASIC.EXE. A token-walking function
(convert_floats) converts IEEE↔MBF at the save_binary()/load_binary() boundary.
Also fixes a latent bug where load_binary() scanned for 0x00 to find the end
of each token line — this fails when float bytes contain null (e.g. MBF for
100.5 is 00 00 49 87). The loader now uses the next-line pointer to compute
token data length, matching the original's approach.
Expand roadmap with detailed implementation plans for the next three
features: MBF binary file compatibility (token-stream conversion at
load/save boundary), hardware I/O simulator (portio.c with PIT/speaker/
CGA/joystick port emulation), and DRAW command fixes (M parsing bug,
scale semantics, A rotation, TA/variable substitution). Remove hardware
I/O from known limitations (moving to planned). Fix stale test counts
(64 -> 66) and version string (0.11.0 -> 0.13.0) across docs.
Binary SAVE/LOAD: SAVE now writes tokenized binary by default (0xFF header
format), matching original GW-BASIC behavior. SAVE "file",A for ASCII.
LOAD auto-detects binary vs ASCII from the first byte. Command-line file
loading also auto-detects, so binary .BAS files just work.
INKEY$ extended keys: arrow keys, Home/End/PgUp/PgDn, Insert/Delete, and
F1-F10 now return the correct CHR$(0) + scan_code two-byte sequences per
the IBM PC convention. Refactored event trap key parsing to use tui_read_key()
instead of duplicating escape sequence parsing.
Golden-file regression tests: generated .expected output files for 55 of 58
test programs (3 timing-dependent tests excluded). The test runner now
reports compat match status alongside pass/fail.
Classic programs: added Hamurabi, Lunar Lander, Gunner, and Diamond from
David Ahl's BASIC Computer Games (1978) in tests/classic/ for manual
compatibility testing.
Docs updated with compiler roadmap item and hardware I/O simulator plan.
Add event-driven programming: ON TIMER(n) GOSUB with TIMER ON/OFF/STOP,
ON KEY(n) GOSUB with KEY(n) ON/OFF/STOP for F1-F10. Fix F-key escape
sequence parser (F9/F10 detection, push back consumed bytes on unmatched
sequences). Add EDIT statement for TUI line editing. Guard key trap
polling so keystrokes aren't consumed when no traps are configured.
RND can now be called without parentheses (equivalent to RND(1)),
matching real GW-BASIC behavior for legacy code compatibility.
Update all Sphinx documentation pages to reflect features added in
v0.6.0-0.8.0: DATE$/TIME$/TIMER, FILES/SHELL/CHDIR/MKDIR/RMDIR,
AUTO/RENUM/DELETE, COMMON, LPRINT/LLIST with --lpt, --full TUI flag,
dynamic screen buffer, 54 tests.
Authentic GW-BASIC screen editor with 25x80 buffer, free cursor movement,
enter-on-any-line, F1-F10 function keys, Insert/Overwrite toggle, KEY
ON/OFF/LIST statement, and Ctrl+Break handling. HAL pointer swap routes
all PRINT/LIST/error output through the TUI automatically. Piped mode
unchanged (50/50 tests pass).
Adds automated compatibility testing infrastructure: DOSBox-X headless
config, PRINT-to-file transform script, and run_compat.sh with --generate
and --compare modes for verifying output against real GWBASIC.EXE.
Project renamed from gwbasic-c to GW-BASIC 2026.
Eremey Valetov
Eremey Valetov