Eremey Valetov
70ffd39562
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.
2.1 KiB
2.1 KiB
GW-BASIC 2026
A portable C reimplementation of Microsoft GW-BASIC, using the original 8088 assembly source (released by Microsoft in 2020) as the authoritative reference.
This is not a transpilation -- it reimplements the algorithms in clean C11
with modern data structures while targeting bug-compatible behavior.
Unlike the original assembly (43,771 lines across 43 .ASM files), this
version is structured as modular C suitable for new feature development.
Highlights
- Authentic full-screen editor -- dynamically sized screen buffer (25×80
default, full terminal with
--full), free cursor movement, Enter-on-any-line, F1-F10 function keys, Insert/Overwrite toggle - Binary and ASCII file formats --
SAVEwrites tokenized binary by default,LOADauto-detects format (just like the real thing) - INKEY$ extended keys -- arrow keys, F-keys, and navigation keys return proper
CHR$(0)+ scan code two-byte sequences - Sixel graphics --
SCREEN 1/SCREEN 2rendering in compatible terminals - Sound --
SOUND,BEEP,PLAY(MML) via PulseAudio, plus continuous tone viaOUT(8253 PIT / PPI speaker emulation) - Hardware I/O --
OUT,INP,WAITport emulation (PIT, PPI, CGA, COM1, game port) for classic programs that drive hardware directly - Full file I/O -- sequential, random-access, SAVE/LOAD/MERGE/CHAIN/COMMON
- Printer output --
LPRINT/LLISTto file or real hardware via--lpt - Classic programs -- Hamurabi, Lunar Lander, Gunner, and Diamond from David Ahl's BASIC Computer Games (1978) run out of the box
- Ahead-of-time compiler --
gwbasic-compile prog.bas -cproduces native executables via C codegen + GCC (56/56 eligible tests pass, 100%) - Jupyter kernel -- inline Sixel graphics, INPUT support, Pygments syntax
highlighting;
pip install -e . && gwbasickernel-install --user - 72 test programs with golden-file regression testing and DOSBox-X compatibility testing against real GWBASIC.EXE
- MIT License
:maxdepth: 2
getting-started
language-reference
architecture
development
roadmap