XC-BASIC v3 First Impressions

XC-BASIC v3, the Commodore BASIC cross-compiler is now available.

Let’s take a look to see what was new and if it is worth looking at over, say, TRSE.

Breaking Changes from V2

A while ago I wrote up a bunch of code for tutorials that would have covered XC-BASIC v2 and I sat on them knowing that v3 was in the works.

Play the adventure game in your web browser.

Big mistake holding back, as version 3 is out now and is incompatible with version 2 in some fundamental ways.

I tried to convert my code over and I ended up in a rabbit hole of pain.

So do I tell folks they will need to start over with v3 or do I forget v2 existed and re-do all my work under v3 syntax?

Right now I don’t have the energy to think about either after spending a full day trying to get any of my old code to work. I will persist, though!

You can now follow the tutorials and edit the code right in your web browser with the Online Retro IDE

– No downloads, configuration, etc necessary, and it is free!

So, what is good?

• Supports many more machines!
• User-defined types have been added, which is super cool!

XC=BASIC is a cross compiled, modern BASIC programming language for 8-bit Commodore machines, such as:

• Commodore-64
• Commodore VIC-20
• Commodore-16
• Commodore Plus/4
• Commodore-128
• Commodore PET series
• Commander X16 (beta) ¹⁾
• MEGA65 (beta)

It compiles BASIC source code to fast machine code. Although not 100% compatible, its syntax was designed to be similar to that of QuickBASIC and CBM BASIC.

Csaba, author of XC=BASIC

User-Defined Types

User-defined types are like classes, they can even have methods.

Where in my adventure game example code I used a byte and set bits as flags, instead I could do this:

  ' OBJECT type

  type OBJECT
    fl_OBJECT_is_used as byte 
    fl_OBJECT_is_consumable as byte
    fl_OBJECT_is_weapon as byte
    fl_OBJECT_is_moveable as byte
    fl_OBJECT_is_container as byte
    fl_OBJECT_is_key as byte
    fl_OBJECT_gives_light as byte
    fl_OBJECT_is_hidden as byte
  end type

What Next?

I do love basic and this is an amazing achievement. If you mainly want to target Commodore machines, and you are already familiar with basic, this is a must-try.

Check it out at the official website.