minimicro-sysdisk VS minimicro-editor-themes

He's currently divided his work into two projects on GitHub: MiniScript.TS is the language core, while MiniScript-NodeJS adds Node.js support and a script-runner. The latter includes support for print and input, the import command, and a subset of the Mini Micro /sys disk.

This might be of interest if you already know BASIC, and want to quickly bang out a game or utility. MiniBASIC provides a good set of high-resolution drawing commands, suitable for making plots, graphs, and diagrams. It also has access to all the data on the built-in /sys disk, including stock images, sounds, and a complete English word list! And, being completely cross-platform, Mini Micro (and so MiniBASIC) runs identically on any desktop computer (and soon mobile devices, too). So if BASIC is already in your wheelhouse, MiniBASIC offers a great way to take advantage of these Mini Micro features.

This uses a couple of tricks which you could glean from the startup.ms file on the system disk (/sys/startup.ms):

So as usual, I come away with a realization for something that really ought to exist in MiniScript: an efficient sort algorithm that takes a comparison function as an argument. I'll code this up soon, and who knows, it might even find its way into a future version of /sys/lib/listUtil.

One lesson learned is that I should always validate my function inputs. Had my findPath function simply checked that it was being passed two 2-element lists, I would have caught my error right away and fared much better. Grabbing code from somewhere else is no excuse; the first thing I should have done is examined the parameters, and added a quick qa.assert to me sure I call it correctly.

Once again, my starter program did me no good; nor did I need any of the stuff I've been gathering in my custom aoc module, or even the standard /sys/lib modules. The solution was plain, unadorned MiniScript. ❤️

My code for this one came out considerably longer than in previous days, despite havng a separate (prepared ahead of time) aoc module and all the other modules in Mini Micro's /sys/lib folder to lean on. So I'll present it in sections.

“Coding joyfully” couldn’t be a better description of the goals of MiniScript and Mini Micro as well. MiniScript is a relatively new language, created in 2017 to provide a clean, simple, powerful, and fun language for computer programming. It’s small enough that the language core can be described in a single page. But with functions as first-class objects, support for object-oriented programming, and sophisticated handling of lists and maps, it’s powerful enough for real work.

I recently discovered a C++ library (circle) that simplifies writing C++ programs to run on the Raspberry Pi, directly "on the metal" — without any operating system. I've had a Raspberry Pi 400 on my side table for a couple years now, running the standard Linux distribution, but not getting much use. What I really wanted was an experience like the classic home computers of the 80s: turn it on, and within seconds you are at a friendly blinking cursor, waiting for you to type some BASIC (or in our case, MiniScript) code.

Since its introduction in 2017, MiniScript's community has been steadily growing. And a delightful community it is — it spans the gamut from brand-new, never-coded-before beginners to experienced software engineers.

[LANGUAGE: MiniScript]

I am sponsoring a private leaderboard/contest for people tackling AoC 2023 using MiniScript, a new(ish), simple, clean programming language. Join us! No previous experience in MiniScript is needed; check out the 1-page Quick Reference and you will quickly see what the language is like.

is MiniScript a dialect of BASIC

We've started a community collection of themes for the Mini Micro code editor at https://github.com/JoeStrout/minimicro-editor-themes. The README file there explains how to browse and install the themes therein, either temporarily, or more permanently by loading them in your startup script.