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Posted By

MMS
on 2010-11-03
18:02:56
 Re: CBM font

Well, I read through the article and enjoyed it a lot (I think it is the third time to check it, really a professional piece of job).

I see your point (in fact I never though there are so many repeating characters in C=16), but what will be the AIM to get unicode for ALL?
Those special characters -highlighted by you as no Unicode- mainly used in BASIC programs for frames and as decorating elements.
BASIC is not existing any more -or at least not in that form we use on plussy- and probably the transfer of those beloved BASIC programs would be a real pain to put into the structured programming language, like FreeBASIC, Dark BASIC or Gambas. (they are more like Pascal or Java)

So I think the best way to keep CBM fonts available and enjoyable is to keep EMU writers and the homepage owners motivated. As I told, I am ready any time to support these activities. Cost of some beers/wines to have fun for a lifetime happy

Emulators know all these codes natively, and run them all without any change. In fact we (or this site) have a huge collection of professional releases and conversions, home-made games, many-many demos, but rather few real-real BASIC gems could be freely reviewed for our own learning (most of the released code are protected). There is a Plus/4 encyclopedia (and to be honest I hardly contributed to this), but with my scanner, OCR and some free time I can upload BASIC programs for general learning.

When my boy become old enough I want to teach him BASIC 3.5, to feel the enjoy of creation. (it is a fantastic feeling to create something brand new without any real material (like mug, paint, pencil, paper), just with your brain and a C=16)
It is a questionmark, if it could be done on a real Plus/4 hardware or an emulator (yeah, 10 years from now onwards...), but the more readible and copy-paste BASIC sample codes (maybe assembly too) we would have the easier to try them and learn it.
(I have a general feeling, that current programming languages are just TOO complex. You have to start with definitions, like INTEGER or REAL. for a 8 years old boy what is INTEGER? how you explain OBJECT?)

Maybe I am wrong, but keeping up the available things seems to be easier than to get in 3 years a code for some special characters, would be anyhow too complex to be used in any other environment, that the BASIC 3.5

Sorry for the looong comment, and being OFF TOPIC (a little)



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