Comment by stkai

Comment by stkai 9 days ago

19 replies

The source code is such a fun read (for the comments). I found some source code for GW-BASIC, and here are two of my favorites:

  ;WE COULD NOT FIT THE NUMBER INTO THE BUFFER DESPITE OUR VALIENT
  ;EFFORTS WE MUST POP ALL THE CHARACTERS BACK OFF THE STACK AND
  ;POP OFF THE BEGINNING BUFFER PRINT LOCATION AND INPUT A "%" SIGN THERE

  ;CONSTANTS FOR THE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR FOLLOW
  ;DO NOT CHANGE THESE WITHOUT CONSULTING KNUTH VOL 2
  ;CHAPTER 3 FIRST
Edit: GW-BASIC, not QBASIC (https://github.com/microsoft/GW-BASIC)
ndiddy 9 days ago

Fun fact, GW-BASIC was a descendant of the original Altair BASIC. The "Translation created 10-Feb-83" headers on each source file refer to tooling Microsoft had that automatically translated the 8080 assembly to 8086 (it shouldn't be taken as a build date since they were manually modified after that point). Besides GW-BASIC, source code for the 6502 and 6809 rewrites of Microsoft BASIC were available up to this point (see https://www.pagetable.com/?p=774 and https://github.com/davidlinsley/DragonBasic) but I believe this is the first public release of the original 8080 BASIC code.

deathtrader666 8 days ago

Shouldn't it be "valiant" ?

  • roryirvine 8 days ago

    Sure, but in those days spellcheckers were separate apps - the most popular at the time being CorrectStar from MicroPro.

    They weren't integrated into programming-oriented editors, and it would have been unusual to run them against code.

    • 3836293648 8 days ago

      I still haven't seen anyone using a spellchecker in code outside of IntelliJ

      • mindcrime 8 days ago

        Eclipse has had an integrated spell-checker, which I believe is on by default for most file types, for like approximately forever. Now maybe everybody turns it off, but I gotta imagine there are some people who like it and keep it on.

      • dhosek 8 days ago

        Emacs has the ability to do spellcheck inline, both as a run through the buffer (old-school style) and as an as-you-type live feature. That said, I do most of my coding in JetBrains IDEs these days.

      • freedomben 8 days ago

        For Vim/Neovim users, there is one built in that is pretty good, and once you've added frequent custom words to the dictionary it is great. You can turn it on with `:set spell` or off with `:set nospell`. Add custom words by pressing `zg` on the target word:

        I have this in my vimrc file so it's on by default for certain file types:

            " Turn on spellcheck for certain filetypes and word completion.                                                                                                                                                                               
            " words can be added to the dict by pressing 'zg' with cursor on word.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
            autocmd Filetype markdown setlocal spell                                                                                                                                                                                                      
            autocmd Filetype gitcommit setlocal spell                                                                                                                                                                                                     
            set complete+=kspell                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
            " Don't highlight in red an underscore (_) in markdown                                                                                                                                                                                        
            " https://vi.stackexchange.com/q/18471/17441                                                                                                                                                                                                  
            autocmd Filetype markdown syn match markdownIgnore "\v\w_\w"
        
        Custom additions to the dictionary will go to a simple text file (one word per line) in `~/.vim/spell/en.utf-8.add` (depending on your settings) where it is easy to edit or backup.
        • porridgeraisin 6 days ago

          > custom additions

          You can also add it directly when using it. Move the cursor to the word and (I forget the command...) can add it as a rare word, good word or bad word.

  • jimbob45 8 days ago

    The best programmers I’ve known have all been deficient at spelling. I don’t know why it so uniformly appears among them.

    • ptspts 7 days ago

      Absolutely not true about the best programmers I know.

    • themadturk 8 days ago

      Humans in general, even writers, are deficient at spelling. This is the reason we need spellcheckers.

      • psychoslave 8 days ago

        I am far more confident at spelling any Esperanto word that I have never faced before than I am with many common word in French which is my native language.

        We can do better than blaming people for falling in pitfalls of a system full of odd traps.

        • themadturk 5 days ago

          Of course you are; Esperanto is a manufactured language designed to a certain standard; French, like our unfortunate English, is naturally evolved and has all the variants and inconsistencies that implies.