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Comment by acqq | Hacker News Reader

> though I suppose it doesn't do the BASIC thing

What's this then?

   bootOS programs: (Oh yes! we have software support)

   fbird         https://github.com/nanochess/fbird
   Pillman       https://github.com/nanochess/pillman
   invaders      https://github.com/nanochess/invaders
   bootBASIC     https://github.com/nanochess/bootBASIC

And one can test the image:

"find a pre-designed disk image along this Git with the name osall.img"

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Yeah, PC-DOS was able to invoke the BASIC interpreter included in the IBM PC ROM, but MS-DOS had to rely on GW-BASIC loaded as a separate executable, which might or might not be present. BootOS is the same, except that its BASIC is only 512 bytes and somewhat more limited than GW-BASIC, but astoundingly it is documented to include a full arithmetic precedence parser with parentheses. No string variables or floating point, but still, unbelievable.

The Basic in BootOS has also REPL, line editing of the Basic source and the backspace also works.

Also note the "system" command which returns you to the "shell" of BootOS. It works!

I meant that UEFI doesn't have a BASIC interpreter (though probably someone has written one).

I did not know that bootOS had one, but it does not surprise me given everything else I read on this thread.

> I meant that UEFI doesn't have a BASIC interpreter (though probably someone has written one).

You wrote something else:

> Yes, BootOS very much in the same space as MS-DOS, although leaning even further on the "less-is-more" axis. It does the same basic things (though I suppose it doesn't do the BASIC thing).

Yah, sorry about that. I replied before checking my memory of what I had written.

I thought I caught the error and deleted the erroneous response in time. But I didn't.

Well, bootBASIC isn't included in the boot sector; it's a separate 512-byte program that can be loaded from the boot sector or by BootOS.

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