BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 version 1.37a released

[Richard Russell]

I have released version 1.37a of BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 - the cross-platform programming language for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Raspberry Pi OS, Android, iOS and in-browser.  The changes in this version are as follows:

• Environment
  
  Updated the Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS editions to SDL 2.28.2.  SDL2 has now entered a maintenance phase, with new developments focussing on SDL3.
  
  Updated the Android edition to target Android 14 (API level 34), which is a requirement of the Play Store (and the main reason for this unscheduled release).
  
  
• BASIC Interpreter / Run Time Engine
  
  Paths and file names may now include a comma, so long as they are enclosed in quotes (a comma is treated the same as a space in that regard).
  
  Fixed an issue when entering accented characters using the Alt Gr key.
  
  Added a new system variable @cache% which points to the font cache, for example to allow defining custom glyphs.
  
  
• IDEs and Utilities
  
  Modified SDLIDE so that keyboard input (and pasting from the clipboard) work as expected in ANSI mode.
  
  Modified SDLIDE so that File... Compare can be interrupted by pressing the ESCape key.
  
  Updated BBCEdit to version 0.40.0 (thanks to Andy Parkes), amongst other changes this accepts the input of accented characters using the Alt Gr key.
  
  
• Libraries
  
  Modified arraylib.bbc to add PROC_pcopy() (and variants) to copy part of one array into another array.
  
  Modified dlglib.bbc and editbox.bbc to scale scroll bars in proportion to other GUI elements.
  
  Fixed a minor memory leak in shaderlib.bbc.
  
  
• Example Programs
  
  Added calculator.bbc in examples/general (yes I know everybody writes a calculator, it's an obvious application for the EVAL function, but this is my take).
  
  Modified dibley.bbc, dropperz.bbc and triples.bbc to scale their output on a window resize.
  
  Modified Ceefax.bbc to improve the formatting of hyphenated text.
  

This version may be downloaded, for all the supported platforms, from the usual location (the Android and iOS editions should be installed from the appropriate App Store).  The GitHub repository has also been updated.

[John Spikowski]

Hi Richard,

Great to see BBC Basic on so many platforms.

Does the Windows version support COM/OLE?

[Richard Russell]

Does the Windows version support COM/OLE?

Yes, BBC BASIC for Windows is supplied with the COMLIB library, and that library requires only a trivial modification to run in the Windows edition of BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0 as well.

There's an example program which uses that library to access the TTS (Text To Speech) functionality in Windows, which has a COM interface.

I also know of one user who uses it to automate Microsoft Office products like Excel, using their ActiveX interface.

[John Spikowski]

Thanks Richard for the clarification of COM/OLE support in BBC BASIC.