Mini game for ELKS Basic

[tyama501]

Hello,

I wrote a mini game for ELKS basic example.
It uses graphic functions, so it is only for PC-98 for now.

https://github.com/tyama501/microef

For making game,
I think it is better to have the following functions for the Basic.
(1) "ELSE" for "IF"
There is no "ELSE", so it is a little bit hard to code.
(2) RANDOMISE
RANDOMISE is not implemented in the basic yet,
so always RND is same sequence when starting the basic.
(3) File access.
I don't know what functions are available in Sinclair basic,
but writing/reading from files are needed to save/load.

Thank you.

[tyama501]

Here is the playing movie.

microef_20230709.mp4

[ghaerr]

Hello @tyama501,

Your new game looks pretty neat!

It looks like it might be nice to have a function to turn off/on the cursor, or perhaps that could be automatic when graphics is initialized.

You're welcome to add RANDOMIZE n function using C srand(n), where n is an optional parameter (otherwise use time(NULL)).

Looking through various Sinclair BASIC docs, I'm not finding any implementation of ELSE. Its implementation might be a bit complicated given that multiple "statements" using : can be used after THEN.

Sinclair doesn't support disk I/O, but various other BASICs use OPEN #1,"file" then PRINT #1,... etc (or something similar). We could look into adding that if you would like.

Thank you!

[ghaerr]

I just found that Sinclair BASIC does support SAVE/LOAD for DATA arrays of integer and string, so this might be easier to implement than previous stated:

[tyama501]

Thank you @ghaerr ,

Yes, I think it is useful to have a command to enable/disable cursors from basic.
Well, I forgot how we are handling cursors when direct console.
There is a conio-pc98-asm.S and there are cursors on/off using Biso int 0x18 for pc-98 but
I think this is only used in Headless console in conio-pc98.c.
Is the elks drawing cursors when when direct console?

I will try to add RANDMIZE.

[ghaerr]

ELKS uses the underlying hardware to draw the cursor, which is currently always left default ON using the power on cursor shape/size.

We should probably add the ANSI cursor on/off sequence to IBM PC direct console, and it can then program the 6845 CRT controller to enable or disable the hardware cursor, and use INT 18h for PC-98 direct console?

ANSI ESC [ ? 25 l hides the cursor and ESC [ ? 25 h shows the cursor.

If you implement the PC-98 cursor on/off, I can add IBM PC support via 6845 chip.

[ghaerr]

Hello @tyama501, I think that CSI parsing is OK, since that code handles ESC 7 and ESC 8 only.

It seems we need a better way to debug console since its hard to insert printk in the switch statements. Let me take a quick look at what might be happening using the original code you posted above.

[ghaerr]

Hello @tyama501,

I just tested your original proposed code in AnsiCmd, and it works for both ESC [ ? 25 h and ESC [ ? 25 l. Thus, I think the problem is that your functions CursorOn and CursorOff are faulty.

I was able to test your code by adding it to console.c and replace the call to CursorOn/CursorOff with C->attr = A_REVERSE. Then, logging in to the sash shell (using toor) which doesn't use linenoise thus not affecting ESC input/output, I typed in ESC [ ? 25 h at the shell prompt and the output turned reverse video, showing success. (Remember to rm *.o in drivers/char to force console.c to be recompiled since it is included into another .c file).

After fixing your cursor on/off routines, I still recommend possibly combining the functions in AnsiCmd and also using DisplayCursor(int onff) for a final version.

Thank you!

[tyama501]

Hello @ghaerr

Thank you.

I tried sash.
It woked with sash...

Do I need to do something to work with ash?

[ghaerr]

Do I need to do something to work with ash?

We're only talking about the ability to for a person to input escape sequences interactively to a shell, not the ability for the escape sequences to be interpreted by the kernel (which always occurs if CONFIG_EMUL_ANSI is set and direct console is used). ash uses the linenoise library which interprets input escape sequences (such as arrow keys), so it intercepts sequences instead of passing them on to the kernel. Thus, ash cannot be used for testing. sash does not interpret any typed input for itself (other than full command lines), thus all the bytes gets passed to the kernel.

[tyama501]

Oh, ok. So this is correct behavior.

I will clean codes to use single DisplayCursor and
make PR.

It seems that I can run sash after booting with ash by typing "sash" so it would be ok.

Thank you.