pdp11 BBC BASIC for the PDP11
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PDP11 BBC BASIC running on
PDP11 Unix Version 6 with an ASR33 Teletype
I started writing BBC BASIC for the PDP11 at university on the late 1980s. It got as far as starting up, producing its startup message and prompting for input. Around 2005 I wrote a PDP emulator and assembler and resumed work on completing it.

Unix BBC BASIC uses standard PDP11 Unix TRAPs for I/O, BSD BBC BASIC uses standard PDP11 BSD TRAPs, so should run on any compliant PDP11 Unix. RT11 BBC BASIC uses standard PDP11 RT11 EMTs, so should run on any compliant PDP11 RT11/RSTS system. With a suitable HostIO module BBC BASIC will run on other PDP11 systems.

BBC BASIC v0.46 (19-Apr-2024):
 
  • BBC BASIC for Bell Unix
  • BBC BASIC for BSD2.11 Unix
  • BBC BASIC for RT11
  • BBC BASIC for PDP11 Tube
  • Brief overview
  • Implementation summary
  • BBC BASIC documentation
    
  • Full archive: source, docs, demos
  • RT11 disk image
  • DFS disk image
  • Background documentation
  • Development blog
  • PDP11 documents and resources
  

Running BBC BASIC on Unix
  • Download:
    * bbcbasic, ansi and basic.unx for Bell Unix and BSD2.9 and earlier
    * bsdbasic, bsdansi and basic.unx for BSD2.10 Unix and later
  • Copy the files to an appropriate directory or into a Unix disk image with a tool such as putr or UxFiler with 'execute by all' permissions (eg chmod 555). Rename bsdbasic to bbcbasic, bsdansi to ansi, and basic.unx to basic. On Unix a suitable location is usually /usr/bin.
  • Alternatively, download the bbcpdp.zip archive and extract it to your Unix system.
  • Boot into Unix, log on and type bbcbasic or basic at the user prompt. basic is a Unix script that starts BBC BASIC with the output piped through ansi for ANSI screen control.
  • bbcbasic is also directly runnable on PDPTube.
Running BBC BASIC on a PDP11 Tube/CoPro
  • Download basic.rom (13K, v0.46 19-Apr-2024).
  • Load it into a bank of sideways RAM, or program it into an EPROM.
  • With the PDP11 CoProcessor enabled, PDP11 BASIC will be the default language and will be entered on Break or with *BASIC.
  • Alternatively, the basic.rom file can be run from the PDP11> prompt.
  • bbcpdp.ssd contains some demo programs, as well as a copy of basic.rom.
  • bbcbasic and basic.sav are also directly runnable on PDPTube.
Running BBC BASIC on RT11, RSTS and UKNC
  • Download basic.sav and copy the file to an appropriate RT11 disk image with a tool such as putr.
  • Alternatively, download the bbcpdp.dsk disk image.
  • Boot into into RT11, select the disk with ASSIGN xyz: DK: where xyz: is the disk with BBC BASIC on it.
  • Type BASIC (or RUN BASIC, or RUN xyz:BASIC where xyz: is the disk the BASIC.SAV file is on).





Demonstrations
The source archive includes some demo programs and documentation.

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Last update: 20-Apr-2024