Well, this is a mind bender.

loop
  loop
    %key$=inkey$
  endloop unless (%key$="")
  print asc(%key$)
endloop

…can be processed by a script to turn into:

10 KE$=INKEY$:IF KE$="" THEN 10
20 PRINT ASC(KE$)
30 GOTO 10

Mind blown. Jerry Stratton has created SuperBASIC for the TRS-80 Color Computer. It processes a text file written in a more modern-looking scripting language and turns it into Color BASIC.

It adds keywords like loop, switch/case, sub, etc. that then get turned into BASIC that does the same thing.

Check it out and see what you think:

https://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/coco/superbasic-trs-80-color-computer/

It would be really cool if we could get all these tools integrated into a cross platform editor (such as Microsoft’s VS Code).

Until next time…