HotTEA Basic

[AlyssonR]

A few years back, Mike Lehman was responsible for an all-Java implementation of BASIC for scripting wep-pages.

While I tried an early release of the Open Source version (out of curiosity rather than need), it seems to have reached V5.0 ot some point, and to have enjoyed some success.

Sadly, the interpreter is now long lost ... and I wonder if anyone has more information on the fate of HotTea and of Cereus7, the company which ran the project?

Heck, I'd be interested to see a copy of it in action (given that the current JRE blocks it as being unsigned )

[John]

Are you aware of Script BASIC for Java? It was written by Peter Verhas the original author of the C version of the Basic.

[AlyssonR]

I am ... but I was merely wondering what had become of a promising product of its day.

I may well end up using SB4J once I'm to that point.

[John]

Actually Script BASIC has a cool Java connect via a socket interface. I was trying to get the JAPI extension module running on an early swing API interface but as usual, interest diminished.

JAPI - ScriptBasic Java GUI extension module

[AlyssonR]

As you say ... cool.

Sadly, interest seems to concentrate around the newest and flashiest toys in the programmer's arsenal, driving folks away from more staid (and usually, solid) technologies. I suspect that the marketing bods have something to do with that, as well as many modern programmers being more like moths than they were.

One of the reasons why I want to use SB is that I can speak basic BASIC instinctively - unlike Java, C* or Pascal, and I don't want the learning curve that getting to grips with Python, Ruby or even the whole PHP thing. Let's not even start on Declarative Languages.

I will take a look at the JAPI module once I have broken ground properly with my project.

[John]

I would invest my time into JAPI if a shared memory interface between Script BASIC and Java rather than a socket interface could be established.

[AlyssonR]

I hear your prayer, and add mine to it

I must admit that I have wondered about using a serial interface to control what is essentially a graphics terminal in a browser window - using HTML/CSS as a layout language for pre-defined widgets and a simple event + data handshake between thin client terminal and back-end application.

Essentially the same thing as we experience in something like VB - but with the forms running as a separate process - potentially on a separate machine.

I know that there are an infinity of clever APIs out there, but they all rely on things like Swing, AJAX and some, frankly, nightmarish code in order to do simple things, but what I'm thinking of is more akin to the old VT-100 devices, but with graphics and widgets instead of highlights and field protection.

Just so long as I don't have to resort to the blink tag (I think it was Esc H B and ESC H b on my ADS terminal)

[John]

Half the job is already done with the Script BASIC MT module. The trick is getting Java to call it's like functions.

Calling C From Java Is Easy

[AlyssonR]

Getting Java to do anything at all is a bit of a miracle for me.