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History and Evolution of nuBASIC

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Origins (March 2014)

nuBASIC was created by Antonino Calderone and first published in March 2014, starting from version 0.1. The initial implementation established the core of what would become a complete language: an expression interpreter, variable support, and a set of fundamental math functions (Sin, Cos, ASin, ACos, and the other standard trigonometric and transcendental functions).

Within the same month, the main BASIC statements appeared: Let, Print, Input, GoTo, If/Then/Else, For/To/Step, and the essential interactive commands Run, List, New, Clr. An I/O console was implemented for both Windows and Linux, making nuBASIC immediately usable on both platforms. .deb packages for Ubuntu/Debian and RPM packages for Fedora and openSUSE followed shortly after.

Growing the Language (April – June 2014)

Spring 2014 brought a remarkable rate of expansion. Each release added features that transformed nuBASIC from a toy interpreter into a usable programming tool:

  • File operations — Open, Close, Input#, Print#, FOpen, Seek, FTell, FSize, and byte arrays (@ suffix), enabling programs to read and write persistent data (v0.15)
  • Subroutines and functions — Sub/End Sub, Function/End Function, Exit Sub, Exit Function, with proper call stacks and local variable scopes (v0.18, v0.19)
  • Structured loops — While/Wend and Do/Loop While, reducing reliance on GoTo (v0.16)
  • Label support — GoTo and GoSub could now target named labels as well as line numbers (v0.14)
  • Breakpoints and tracing — conditional breakpoints (Break If), program tracing (TrOn/ TrOff), and step-mode execution (StOn/StOff) for debugging (v0.13–v0.20)
  • First graphics — Line, Rect, FillRect, Ellipse, FillEllipse on Windows (GDI) and Linux (X11), then TextOut and SetPixel (v0.7–v0.9)
  • Mouse support — GetMouseX(), GetMouseY(), GetMouseBtn() (v1.06)
  • Eval function — evaluate a nuBASIC expression from a string at run time (v1.10)
  • First game examples: breakout.bas, breakout2.bas, minehunter.bas

In parallel, the nuBasicEditor — a Windows IDE with syntax highlighting, autocomplete, context help (F1), bookmarks, and a toolbar — grew from its first release (v0.2) to v1.11.

Type System Expansion (Nov 2014 – Nov 2015)

  • Boolean (# postfix) and Long64 (& postfix) numeric types (v1.24)
  • Unary operators — C-style prefix ++ and -- (v1.24)
  • Escape sequences — \n, \r, \t, \a, and others inside string literals (v1.24)
  • Const statement — named, immutable constants with optional explicit type (v1.22)
  • Elif / ElseIf — cleaner multi-branch conditionals (v1.25–v1.26)
  • Stop statement — break execution and return to the REPL, resumable with Cont (v1.51)
  • Explicit type declarations — Dim x As Integer, Dim s As String (v1.40)
  • Struct — user-defined composite types with named fields and full nesting (v1.40)
  • Extended function syntax — typed return values, functions returning struct objects and arrays (v1.42, v1.48)

New graphical examples: clock.bas (analog clock), plane.bas (flying-plane animation).

Hash Tables, Floating-Point Formatting (Jan 2017)

Version 1.47 added:

  • Hash tables — HSet, HGet, HCnt, HChk, HDel
  • Any type — automatically takes the type of whatever is assigned to it
  • StrP / StrP$ — floating-point formatting with a specified number of significant digits
  • GetAppPath() — path of the nuBASIC executable
  • Quit() — exit the interpreter from within a program

Linux IDE, MIT License (Jul 2017)

Version 1.48 was a strategic milestone:

  • The IDE was ported to Linux/GTK+, making the full development environment available on both platforms
  • License changed to MIT, removing all previous usage restrictions
  • Added editor zoom in/out, SetTopmost, updated stb_image to 2.15, Scintilla to 3.74

READ / DATA / RESTORE (Jul 2019)

Version 1.50 added the classic Read, Data, and Restore statements for embedding structured constant tables — palettes, maps, sprite data — directly in source code.

Quality-of-Life Fixes (Sep 2019)

Version 1.51:

  • Fixed a parser regression with the unary minus operator
  • Added Stop for compatibility with other BASIC interpreters
  • Extended If to support an implicit GoTo after Then/Else without the GoTo keyword
  • Fixed mouse position misalignment on Windows high-DPI / scaled display configurations

Unicode Support (Feb 2022)

Version 1.52 added support for Unicode escape sequences in string literals: the $u prefix enables \u0000–\uFFFF sequences, outputting the corresponding Unicode characters.

Custom Windows Console, UTF-8, MSI Installer (March 2026)

Version 1.60 was the largest infrastructure release since the original:

  • A brand-new GDI-based console window replaced the standard Windows console. Renders text and graphics natively using GDI, works correctly both standalone and embedded in the IDE, and avoids the limitations of the Windows Console API.
  • Full UTF-8 support end-to-end: characters outside ASCII are now preserved through the tokenizer, interpreter runtime, and GDI console. Two silent-stripping bugs were fixed. The new example hello_world_languages.bas demonstrates multilingual output in 20 languages.
  • An MSI installer introduced proper Windows Add/Remove Programs integration, desktop shortcuts, and clean uninstallation.
  • Scintilla updated to its latest version.

nuBASIC 2.0 — New Language Features (2026)

Version 2.0 is a major release that both removes deprecated APIs and introduces significant new language capabilities.

SELECT CASE

A Select Case / End Select block dispatches on any scalar expression. Each Case arm is tested in order; the first matching arm executes and control passes to End Select. Case Else is the optional fallback.

Supported arm forms: single values (Case 1), comma-separated lists (Case 1, 3, 5), inclusive ranges (Case 1 To 10), comparison guards (Case Is > 100), and string values. Nesting is supported.

Classes with Static Methods

The Class/End Class block gained Static Function and Static Sub members — class-level procedures that can be invoked without an instance:

Class Utils
   Static Function Max(a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer
      If a > b Then Max = a Else Max = b
   End Function
End Class

Print Utils.Max(3, 7)   ' 7

Instance methods continue to use Me to refer to the receiver.

main() Entry Point

When a Function main(...) is present in the top-level program, execution starts there rather than at the first statement. Three signatures are accepted:

  • Function main() As Integer
  • Function main(argc As Integer) As Integer
  • Function main(argc As Integer, argv() As String) As Integer

argv(0) is the script filename; remaining elements are extra arguments passed on the command line after the filename. The entry-point behaviour is suppressed in Included files so libraries can define their own main helpers without hijacking execution.

Open-ended Array Parameters

Subs and Functions can now declare a parameter with empty parentheses — param() As Type — to accept an array of any caller-determined size. Previously the dimension had to be specified in the signature, preventing generic array-processing procedures.

Namespaced Modules

Syntax Modern activates a two-namespace view of the built-in library: functions are addressable as module::name (e.g. math::sin, string::left$, runtime::sizeof). Using ModuleName imports a module's names into the local scope for unqualified access. Syntax Legacy (the default) restores the classic flat namespace so all existing programs continue to work unchanged.

Breaking Changes: Removed Deprecated APIs, Parser Refactor (April 2026, v2.0)

Version 2.0 removes all deprecated built-in functions announced in v1.62 and refactors the statement parser internals.

Removed deprecated scalar date/time functions — SysDay, SysMonth, SysYear, SysWDay, SysYDay, SysHour, SysMin, SysSec are gone. Use GetDateTime() which returns a DateTime struct with all fields in a single call.

Removed deprecated scalar mouse functions — GetMouseX, GetMouseY, GetMouseBtn are gone. Use GetMouse() which returns a Mouse struct with fields x, y, and btn.

Statement parser refactored — the monolithic stmt_parser_t class has been renamed to statement_parser_t and its source split into three focused files: nu_parser_io.cc (I/O statements), nu_parser_flow.cc (control-flow statements), and nu_parser_struct.cc (struct/class statements). The public header is now include/parser/nu_statement_parser.h.

Bug fixes:

  • Print #n with a space between Print and #n now works correctly.
  • On expr GoTo lbl1, lbl2, ... now dispatches to all labels in the list, not only the first.
  • lbl: statement inline syntax after an On...GoTo dispatch no longer raises a syntax error.
  • CLI: arguments following -e filename are now passed to the script as argv entries and no longer corrupted into the filename string.

Debugger, Native Calls, and Runtime Optimisation (May 2026, v2.0)

The 2.0 cycle also modernised the execution and tooling layers:

  • Debugger stepping model — the interpreter core now exposes reusable Continue, Step Into, Step Over, Step Out, Pause/Break, and Run to Cursor commands. The same model is used by the native IDE, the debug CLI, and the VS Code debug adapter.
  • Graphics-aware VS Code debugging — graphical programs can be debugged with drawing routed to a separate GDI window while debugger protocol messages and textual diagnostics remain in the VS Code session.
  • Native library calls — Declare Function ... Lib ... can call exported functions from Windows DLLs, Linux shared objects, and macOS dylibs through libffi. Native calls are enabled by default for trusted local hosts and can be disabled with --disable-native-calls.
  • Line continuation — _ joins the following physical source line into the same logical BASIC statement before parsing.
  • Runtime value optimisation — variant_t now stores scalar values inline, boxes struct/object metadata, uses copy-on-write for struct payload copies, and preserves struct field declaration order for native interop and predictable introspection.
  • Hex literal compatibility — the original BASIC &hFF / &HFF syntax remains supported, and 0xFF / 0XFF is accepted as a convenience for C-style constants.

WinRayCast Integration (June 2026, v2.0)

The headline addition for Windows is the integrated WinRayCast engine — a lightweight raycaster that lets a BASIC program render pseudo-3D, Wolfenstein 3D-style first-person scenes from a 2D grid map. The engine handles textured walls, sprites, doors, actors, weapons, pickups, sound, and multi-level transitions, while nuBASIC drives it through the raycast module (the Ray… built-in functions): RayInit, RayLoadProject, RayUpdate, RayRender, RayPresent, and the player/combat/map query calls. It is enabled by default on Windows builds (NUBASIC_WITH_RAYCAST) and absent on other platforms.

This is a true engine binding, distinct from the earlier pure-BASIC software raycaster example (raycast3d.bas), which kept drawing columns by hand with Line. The companion demo examples/raycast/eclipse_protocol.bas is a complete, playable game — multi-weapon combat, energy/health, a minimap and HUD, key/lock doors, autosave checkpoints, and elevator transitions between levels — and showcases Syntax Modern, Struct, and Class working together. See Raycast Game Engine for the full reference.

Struct-returning Functions, Screen Mode, Regression Tests (April 2026, v1.62)

Version 1.62 introduced new built-in functions that return all their values in a single struct rather than requiring multiple calls, a headless text mode for scripting and CI, and the first automated regression test suite.

GetDateTime() and GetMouse() replace the individual scalar accessors with struct-typed return values. GetDateTime() returns a DateTime struct with fields year, month, day, hour, minute, second, wday, and yday. GetMouse() returns a Mouse struct with fields x, y, and btn. Both struct types are pre-registered at interpreter startup so that Dim dt As DateTime and Dim m As Mouse work without a user-written Struct block. The previous individual functions (SysYear, SysMonth, SysDay, SysHour, SysMin, SysSec, SysWDay, SysYDay, GetMouseX, GetMouseY, GetMouseBtn) were deprecated in v1.62 and removed in v2.0.

SCREEN statement — Screen 0 switches to text/headless mode: all I/O goes through the real Windows console (stdout/stdin) and every GDI drawing call is a silent no-op. Screen 1 restores full GDI console mode. Mirrors the GW-BASIC SCREEN command.

-t / --text-mode CLI flag activates Screen 0 before the interpreter starts and reconnects the CRT stdio streams to the caller's inherited Win32 handles (pipe, redirect, terminal), allowing test runners and CI pipelines to capture Print output without opening a GUI window. The interpreter exits cleanly after executing a batch command instead of blocking on stdin.

Regression test suite — tests/run_tests.ps1 (PowerShell) and tests/run_tests.sh (Bash) execute every test_*.bas file in the tests/ directory with -t -e, parse PASS/FAIL lines and the summary printed by each test, and report per-suite and overall totals. A RunTests CMake/Visual Studio target invokes the appropriate script from the IDE or from cmake --build. Ten test suites are included: math, strings, arrays, control flow, procedures, types, struct (ByRef), struct (file), struct arrays, and file I/O.

Flicker-free Graphics Rendering (April 2026, v1.61)

Version 1.61 addressed per-primitive screen flicker in animated programs. Before this release, every graphics call triggered an immediate blit — a frame composed of ten drawing commands produced ten visible intermediate states.

Two fixes were implemented:

  1. Painting compositing fix — text characters and the cursor are now composited onto the back buffer before the single copy to the screen.

  2. ScreenLock / ScreenUnlock / Refresh instructions — a new atomic lock flag suppresses the automatic blit after each drawing command. Fourteen graphical example programs were updated: breakout2.bas, breakout3.bas, pingpong.bas, nutetris.bas, nutetris3d.bas, raycast3d.bas, plane.bas, clock.bas, cartoon.bas, minesHunter.bas, tictactoe.bas, line.bas, rosetta.bas, and calc.bas.

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