bwbasic

[dougmack]

Moved from "can I get gw basic" at the advice of one of the posters.  I have downloaded gw basic from http://sourceforge.net/projects/bwbasic/
but I am snowed on the installation.  Here's a reprint of my previous message to the general forum:

Hi, at--yes, it would seem that this would work, if I knew how to install it.  Sorry to be such a wuss, but I don't know what to do with
this big directory full of stuff.  The INSTALL file says "On Unix, type "configure; make".  Well, that is apparently insufficient.
How should the command(s) actually be written to install this software?  I have tried to google for the answer, but have not found anything
that makes any sense to me.  I have also chmod 766 configure, since it was not marked executable, but that was no help.  (Actually,
the ls -la command shows the file as configure*  --I've seen that before, but I don't know what the * means.)  Please enlighten this dope!
Thanx--doug

[AS]

EDIT: amended as per bitzbox suggestions, thank you. 

Try as follow:

1) create a directory bwbasic
2) download the source from sourceforge
3) unzip the content
   (there is a problem with the configure script: it's not executable, and is in DOS (CR+LF) format)
4) Open Synaptic, search and install "dos2unix" utility and then run dos2unix configure
5) add execution permissions: chmod a+x configure
6) run configure: ./configure  ./configure --prefix=/usr
7) run make: make
8 ) As root, run make install: make install
9 ) run bwbasic  

$ bwbasic
Bywater BASIC Interpreter/Shell, version 2.50
Copyright (c) 1993, Ted A. Campbell
Copyright (c) 1995-1997, Jon B. Volkoff

bwBASIC:

AS

[bitzbox]

If I may, please allow me to amend your instructions:

6 ) Run configure: ./configure --prefix=/usr
8 ) As root, run make install: make install
9 ) Run bwbasic

Regards .....

[Ertain]

And if that doesn't work (the "configure" script is messed up or something) try doing this.

Code: [Select]

# Got this one from a bootstrap script.
aclocal
libtoolize --force --copy
automake --foreign --add-missing
autoconf
Then try "./configure --prefix=/usr" and "make".

[dougmack]

It was suggested that I post this problem in this section of the forum, so here it is:

Someone on the forum pointed me at a source for bwbasic, and I downloaded the RPM.  I don't know what I have to do now to install it.
I think it involves configure and make, but I don't know how to manipulate these things to get from "a" to "b" --the old book, "Maximum RPM"
doesn't explain this, or if it does, I couldn't find it.

If you need more information, please ask.

Thank you--doug

See my final post for comments.  --doug

[KernelKarter]

If you could let me know where you got the RPM from, I'll take a look.

Thanks,
KK

[dougmack]

I was recommended to these:

http://www.bwbasic.at/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bwbasic/

and to the best of my recollection, I chose the first.
The files are all bwbasic-2.50  Here's a list of most of them.

[doug@localhost Documents]$ ls bwb* 
allcms.bat    bwbasic6.jcl     bwb_cnd.c  bwb_mth.c   bwb_tcc.c  bwx_tty.h      Makefile.in      stdcomp.bat
allcms.exec   bwbasic7.jcl     bwb_dio.c  bwbmvs.txt  bwbtest/   compile.bat    Makefile.ncu     subjobs.bat
allmvs.bat    bwbasic.c        bwb_elx.c  bwb_ops.c   bwb_var.c  compile.exec   makefile.qcl     unixio.c
bwbasic1.jcl  bwbasic.doc      bwb_exp.c  bwb_par.c   bwx_iqc.c  configure*     makefile.wcl386  unixio.h
bwbasic2.jcl  bwbasic.h        bwb_fnc.c  bwb_prn.c   bwx_iqc.h  configure.in*  profile.bas      zipcms.bat
bwbasic3.jcl  bwbasic INSTALL  bwb_inp.c  bwb_stc.c   bwx_ncu.c  COPYING        README           zipmvs.bat
bwbasic4.jcl  bwbasic.mak      bwb_int.c  bwb_str.c   bwx_ncu.h  example.bas    renum.c
bwbasic5.jcl  bwb_cmd.c        bwb_mes.h  bwb_tbl.c   bwx_tty.c  INSTALL        stdbwb.parm

I hate to feel so stupid!  Where can I learn more about this process?

Thanx for your interest and help.--doug

[AS]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,91168.msg764154.html#msg764154

(may be some Admin want to merge the thread ...)

AS

[KernelKarter]

Yep, those instructions sum it up very nicely  

However, I don't think any of the documentation or examples get installed so maybe the configure script needs tweaking?

Thanks,
KK

[dougmack]

OK, Kernel, *what* instructions?

--doug

[KernelKarter]

I hate to feel so stupid!  Where can I learn more about this process?

Absolutely no need to feel stupid m8, everyone has to learn and I would think one of the best places to learn would be, ummmm, here? 

Thanx for your interest and help.--doug

No problem.

Cheers,
KK

[gseaman]

There are a couple of missing steps that I found in an opensuse spec file:

Be careful! This zip file unloads all of its contents into the current directory.
from the directory that you downloaded to:

unzip bwbasic-2.50.zip -d bwbasic-2.50
cd bwbasic-2.50
cp -af /usr/share/automake*/install-sh .
autoconf
./configure
make

You can run bwbasic from this directory or install it.

su -c 'make install'

The Makefile will instruct is to install in /usr/local/bin, which is appropriate if /usr/local/bin is in your path. If not, you have to add it to your path or change the Makefile to say "prefix=/usr". Normally, this is passed with "./configure --prefix=/usr", but this doesn't seem to work with this program.

This worked for me, but this is not officially supported. I will go ahead and make this into an rpm package, but there are still a couple of details to work out. So, if you are brave and want to go ahead, I think this is enough to begin. Or, if you want to wait, there should be a package soon.

Galen

[KernelKarter]

OK, Kernel, *what* instructions?

These ones:

1) create a directory bwbasic
2) download the source from sourceforge
3) unzip the content
   (there is a problem with the configure script: it's not executable, and is in DOS (CR+LF) format)
4) Open Synaptic, search and install "dos2unix" utility and then run dos2unix configure
5) add execution permissions: chmod a+x configure
6) run configure:   ./configure --prefix=/usr
7) run make: make
8 ) As root, run make install: make install
9 ) run bwbasic 

TTFN,
KK

[dougmack]

bwbasic is installed and running!  Thank you!

In Galen's file, the computer barfed on "cp -af /usr..."  It doesn't like -af, and suggested something else. I decided to try the other version:
KK's instructions worked, altho there were a bunch of complaints, I think it was in ./configure and in make.
However, the thing works.  It is not completely compatible with GWbasic--some of the shortcuts don't work, as I found.  Also, it wasn't
happy with a  '60 print "output= " output' which I think ought to work, so I have to figure out why not. (Maybe a typo.)
I will have to study the readme file, which lists those commands that are implemented, but it shouldn't be too hard to edit existing code
to make it work.

Thanx again to all who worked on this.  I will keep the instructions, and see if I can figure out why they work, (or don't). It will be nice if Galen
creates a complete installable package.  There must be a lot of folks with old programs they'd like to use again.

--doug

[gseaman]

bwbasic is installed and running!  Thank you!

In Galen's file, the computer barfed on "cp -af /usr..."  It doesn't like -af, and suggested something else.
...

Thanx again to all who worked on this.  I will keep the instructions, and see if I can figure out why they work, (or don't). It will be nice if Galen creates a complete installable package.  There must be a lot of folks with old programs they'd like to use again.

--doug

I am glad that you got it to work! I got the error that you did with the copy command, but it seemed to work anyway. I tried several different ways, and it didn't work without it. There are several patches in the opensuse rpm, but I haven't figured out what they do and whether they are relevant to the 2.50 version. I'll let you know if I get a successful package built.

Galen