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🚀 Working on a BASIC Compiler (rbbasic) — hobby project, early alpha (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by ron77@lemmy.world to c/programming@programming.dev

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Hi everyone 👋 I wanted to share a little project I've been working on: rbbasic, a BASIC programming language compiler I'm writing in C++.

The idea is simple — and a bit nostalgic: It's a transcompiler that converts BASIC code into C, then compiles it using GCC into an executable.

🛠️ Current Status

Early alpha stage

Only basic features implemented (closer to a primitive GW-BASIC for now)

Still missing a lot of built-ins and syntax features

Focused on Windows right now — Linux support coming

The long-term dream is something like QB64-lite, maybe focused more on GW-BASIC style

🎯 Goals

See if I can actually build a working BASIC compiler 😅

Recreate the feel of GW-BASIC / QBasic on modern systems

Eventually MIT-licensed and published on GitHub

Mostly a personal hobby project right now — not aiming at mass adoption

Possibly demoing progress soon on my YouTube channel

❓ Why am I doing this?

Honestly... curiosity and love for BASIC. I code mostly in retro-style languages (FreeBASIC, QB45, Euphoria, etc.), so it feels natural to try building my own compiler even if better tools already exist today.

💬 Feedback welcome

I’d love your thoughts, advice, or suggestions. If anyone here has experience writing compilers, transpilers, or retro programming tools, I’d really appreciate hearing about your journey too.

Thanks for reading & happy coding! ✨

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[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It is a wonderful project, I got a little rush of nostalgia just from the mention of GW-BASIC.

Make sure you research what the "right way" is to approach some of the difficult problems you will run into; you will learn more that way instead of needing to struggle with figuring out how to pick out where the end of the current loop is or whatever. It will be more enjoyable and manageable I think, and also you will level up your skill.

I do think you should leave the emojis out of the summary, people will think you had ChatGPT write the description lol.

Good luck! It sounds like an endeavor. It will probably not get some wide adoption, as you mention there are plenty of these tools already, but that is not the reason to do it.

[–] ron77@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, if I wanted a wide adoption, I'd probably name it something like "GW64" LOL :D