RUN {brassica}

Run BASIC Programs

Description

Loads and runs BASIC programs.

Usage

RUN(program = NULL, ttx = 0, tty = 0, up = FALSE)

Arguments

program

A character string, containing the name or file path of a BASIC program. Omitting this re-runs the currently-loaded program.

ttx

Aesthetic teletype option. A delay, of not more than 200 milliseconds, to be applied after printing each character. In practice, the actual delay will be this time plus however long it takes to flush the console, plus interpreter overheads. Depending on the model, a real teletype could manage around ten characters per second. Making this negative imposes no delay, but flushes the console after each completed line (not after each character).

tty

Aesthetic teletype option. A delay, of not more than 2000 milliseconds, to be applied after each line of printing. Making this negative imposes no delay, but still flushes the console after each completed line.

up

Aesthetic teletype option. Making this TRUE forces all BASIC output to upper case.

Details

List of bundled example programs (from the references):

Animal	by Arthur Luehrmann	(decision trees)
Camel	by the Heath Users Group	(random walk)
Chase	by Mac Oglesby	(robots)
Eliza	by Jeff Shrager	(language processing)
Even Wins	by Eric Peters	(machine learning)
Flip	by John S. James	(machine learning)
Four in a Row	by James L. Murphy	(artificial intelligence)
Guess-It	by Gerard Kierman	(bluffing)
Hammurabi	by David H. Ahl	(resource management)
Hexapawn	by R. A. Kaapke	(machine learning)
Inkblot	by Scott Costello	(projection)
Life	by Clark Baker	(cellular automata)
Maze	by Richard Schaal	(depth-first search)
Not One	by Robert Puopolo	(expectation values)
Sea Battle	by Vincent Erickson	(monsters)
Super Star Trek	by Richard Leedon	(vector space)
Wumpus	by Gregory Yob	(graph topology)

All of these are in the public domain.

Value

Returns an invisible NULL, after printing to standard output.

Note

Many BASIC programs ask for user input after printing a custom prompt. When ttx is greater than zero, some R sessions may incorrectly position the cursor at the beginning of the line, or on the next. Neither occurrence is fatal. Known to be affected: Windows R terminal (‘R’ and ‘Rterm’, but the ‘Rgui’ console is fine), Mac R console (but the Bash terminal is fine), RStudio. Additionally, double buffering, or the like, may interfere with the effect at higher speeds (Mac R console, again).

References

1. David H. Ahl & Steve North, BASIC Computer Games (1978)

2. David H. Ahl & Steve North, More BASIC Computer Games (1979)

See Also

LIST

Examples

## Not run: 
# Load and run 'Wumpus'.
RUN("wumpus")

# Load and run 'Chase', flushing the
# console after every line of output.
RUN("chase", -1)

# Load and run 'Camel', with full
# retro-style teletypewriter effects.
RUN("camel", 20, 300, TRUE)

# Load and run your program.
RUN("myprogram.bas")

# Re-run the last program
# (without re-loading it).
RUN()

## End(Not run)