A BASIC interpreter, written in Python, runs on microcontrollers #Python #BASIC #VintageComputing @Hackaday

PyBASIC is a simple interactive BASIC interpreter written in Python 3. It is based heavily on material in the excellent book Writing Interpreters and Compilers for the Raspberry Pi Using Python by Anthony J. Dos Reis. However, richpl has had to adapt the Python interpreter presented in the book, both to work with the BASIC programming language and to produce an interactive command line interface. The interpreter therefore adopts the key techniques for interpreter and compiler writing, the use of a lexical analysis stage followed by a recursive descent parser which implements the context free grammar representing the target programming language.

The interpreter is a homage to the home computers of the early 1980s, and when executed, presents an interactive prompt (‘>’) typical of such a home computer. Commands to run, list, save and load BASIC programs can be entered at the prompt as well as program statements themselves.

See the video below of PyBASIC running on an Adafruit PyPortal and more on GitHub and Hackaday


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2 Comments

  1. Really? An interpreted language written in an interpreted language? Are compilers dead? This is ridiculous.

  2. Yes and it works well for retro computing. Compiling is so 20th century.

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