Basicbuilder plugins

mmartin · Post by **mmartin** » Sun 30 Apr, 2006 7:05 pm

I am the author of basicbuilder and would like to ask a question to the (advanced) basic programmers here. I don't know if you've used basicbuilder but it's a windows program to package your application inside an app. When the app is started, your basic programs will be unpacked from the app, executed and deleted afterwards. It's the closest thing to actually executing from archive.

I've gotten some feature requests for advanced features and am considering to add a plugin system to basicbuilder in order to support them. For example I (or anyone else) might add a plugin that only extracts the main program and keeps the subprograms stored in flash. Whenever a subprogram is called, it is unpacked, executed and deleted. This means that only the programs that are actually running are in memory. For example program B and C might be 16kb (they don't fit together in memory) and program A is the main program (:prgmB:prgmC) What happens is that B is unpacked and run but it is deleted before C is unpacked and run. This means that there will be enough memory to execute C even if B and C don't fit together.

Another possibility would be to add features of XLib to basicbuilder. This would allow you to distribute your entire program as a single app that should work on any calculator. Or you could add a grayscale plugin.

Now my question is if there are enough people that would use the plugins? Also, please tell me any reason why you think this plugin system is useful to you. I will try to submit this as a google summer of code project and any reasons I can give in my application are handy.

Thanks,
Martin

crzyrbl · Post by **crzyrbl** » Mon 01 May, 2006 12:05 am

I could use the first idea to archive the maps in my game instead of cluttering the OS with 50 different map prgms.

elfprince13 · Post by **elfprince13** » Mon 01 May, 2006 12:28 am

martin, how often do you get on ICQ?

necro · Post by **necro** » Mon 01 May, 2006 12:37 am

I agree with cryzbl that this sounds like an awesome idea with a lot of potential

elfprince13 · Post by **elfprince13** » Mon 01 May, 2006 12:58 am

me too. Im assuming the plugins would be in python like the rest of BBuilder?

[edit]
or rather like BBuilder's back end.

necro · Post by **necro** » Mon 01 May, 2006 3:47 am

I never understood python though...I suppose it would give me a reason to learn though (:

elfprince13 · Post by **elfprince13** » Mon 01 May, 2006 4:46 am

really? for me it was by far the easiest language Ive learned after HTML, Logo and Basic....

[edit]

90th post!!! woot.

mmartin · Post by **mmartin** » Mon 01 May, 2006 1:05 pm

I don't have any fixed times I am on ICQ, but you can always try to see if I'm online.

The plugins would probably be a combination of python and z80-assembly. The python code should specify on the pc what assembly code has to be added to the app at what locations.

Floodkiller · Post by **Floodkiller** » Mon 01 May, 2006 3:17 pm

it would just be the best if you could do that, that would make running stealth lots easier

the only thing i would need basicbuilder to do then is to ungroup groups and delete those elements after use. Then it would be perfect

mmartin · Post by **mmartin** » Mon 01 May, 2006 3:23 pm

Why do you need to ungroup groups? Basicbuilder already stores it's own equivalent for groups inside the app. This has the advantage that you can redistribute the app as a single item. While a normal basic program either has to be distributed as a group that has to be unpacked or it is distributed as a whole set of programs you need.

Floodkiller · Post by **Floodkiller** » Mon 01 May, 2006 7:27 pm

so you are saying that technically i could have, say, seven groups inside the app, each containing varying amounts of programs in them?

kalan_vod · Post by **kalan_vod** » Mon 01 May, 2006 8:32 pm

No, he is saying the app is a group its self. You pack all the programs and pics inside the app.

mmartin · Post by **mmartin** » Mon 01 May, 2006 8:46 pm

At the moment you have a group of basic programs inside the app for each menu item. When a menu item is selected, the group is extracted and the main program is executed, after execution all programs are deleted. The pics are stored inside the app and can only be retrieved using RecallPic, which extracts them directly from the app to display them. The pics have global names which are the same for alle programs/menu items inside the app.

crzyrbl · Post by **crzyrbl** » Mon 01 May, 2006 11:48 pm

i forgot to ask, do you think to could compress it too?

mmartin · Post by **mmartin** » Tue 02 May, 2006 6:08 am

It already has pucrunch builtin as compression mechanism.