Femto Basic Upgrade Thoughts
Oldbitcollector (Jeff)
Posts: 8,091
One of my current projects is the creation of a modern microcomputer with Femto running at it's core. I thought I'd drop it into another popular micro's box, the C64 (plenty of room) using it's keyboard interfaced into Femto via a serial connection. (working nicely I might add)
I've been playing catchup "reading" with some of the other FemtoBASIC threads from February this year, in regard to ways to upgrade Femto to support more features...
Thought 1: How about a method of passing command-line information with the SPIN" command. (This would allow us to direct the actions of the object we are about to run, example: commands for the graphics object) Of course theres that little detail of Femto dumping currently running program's memory, but thanks to Tom's SD routines, a save-state shouldn't be too tough. Perhaps we incorporate the SD routines, drop the command line info there, and pick it back up when the spun object starts up.
Thought 2: (And currently the direction I'm going) Piggyback a second Propeller chip to handle the output processes like audio and video. I'm considering my own method of linking it, and with recent success with serial,I will be leaning that way. I'm just not sure there's enough room left in Femto's current condition to create anything too fancy in the way of commands. (We're already tight on memory as it is.)
I've already ordered my 2nd prop, and SD interface.
Hey, if 32 lines were interesting, then 64 can only be better.
Anyone else still playing with fb?
Oldbit
I've been playing catchup "reading" with some of the other FemtoBASIC threads from February this year, in regard to ways to upgrade Femto to support more features...
Thought 1: How about a method of passing command-line information with the SPIN" command. (This would allow us to direct the actions of the object we are about to run, example: commands for the graphics object) Of course theres that little detail of Femto dumping currently running program's memory, but thanks to Tom's SD routines, a save-state shouldn't be too tough. Perhaps we incorporate the SD routines, drop the command line info there, and pick it back up when the spun object starts up.
Thought 2: (And currently the direction I'm going) Piggyback a second Propeller chip to handle the output processes like audio and video. I'm considering my own method of linking it, and with recent success with serial,I will be leaning that way. I'm just not sure there's enough room left in Femto's current condition to create anything too fancy in the way of commands. (We're already tight on memory as it is.)
I've already ordered my 2nd prop, and SD interface.
Hey, if 32 lines were interesting, then 64 can only be better.
Anyone else still playing with fb?
Oldbit