i am looking for a version of hp basic -now i have found that hp no longer produce it
is htbasic as good or compatible, or is it worth going to test exec ?
has any one got any experience of these programs?
unfortunately we have legacy code which i would like to re-use - written a long time ago for the archimedes for control of hp machines network analysers and antenna rotators
Are you trying to use the same processor? If not, the HP code may likely require a massive porting exercise in any case. IF yes, what happened to the HP basic that came with the machine?
the original code was written on the archmedes in hp basic which is not compatible with the pc and as i am moving to a pc based system and the arch can save files in pc format i was hoping to use the structure of the program on the pc with the commands to send to the analyser etc already written - or is this not how it will work??????
Depends on how the original hardware was configured, e.g., whether the IEEE port(?) was integrated into the HP basic, which was often the case. On the PC, you'll generally need a separate IEEE-488 card with a driver that will integrate with basic in some fashion, dependent on the supplier's convention.
Other than that, print and input commands might also be somewhat different. Everything else should port to pretty much any basic that's available on the PC, such as QBASIC.
I will look through some of my stuff for an old copy of HP-Basic a.k.a. Rocky Mountain Basic. I understand exactly what you are looking for, and know why the other software packages will NOT work. Unforturnately, as you have already found, HP-Basic is virtually extinct, and heavan forbid, you finally get a copy of the program, and a harddisk goes out! (Have you tried to find one of those yet? GOOD LUCK!!!) You might have to bite the bullet and upgrade. I know that you will be starting from scratch, and all of your setup will have to be redone (unless some of these new programming languages can handle GPIO communication????), but for the sake of your sanity and wallet, you might just want to upgrade.
Will let you know if I find it! Good luck and keep us posted.
A somewhat long time ago, about 6 years, National Instruments still supported a DOS driver for Basic, but at this point, I'd imagine that only Windows is supported on the PC, and maybe Linux, but I wouldn't bet on it.