BACON

BaCon is a free BASIC to C converter for Unix-based systems. The following design goals were followed:

Must run on each Unix/Linux/BSD platform, including MacOSX
Converted sourcecode must be compilable with GCC
Must resemble genuine BASIC with implicit variable delarations
Spoken language constructs are preferred

To use Bacon your system must have Korn Shell or Bourne Again Shell (BASH) available. If both Korn Shell nor Bash are available on your platform, download and install the free Public Domain Korn Shell which can execute BaCon also. Furthermore BaCon works with the traditional Korn Shell KSH88, but also with a newer Kornshell implementation like the MirBSD Korn Shell.

BaCon intends to be a programming aid in creating tools which can be compiled on different platforms (including 64bit environments). It tries to revive the days of the good old BASIC.

Code converted by BaCon can be compiled by GCC, the Compaq C Compiler or TCC.

News

July 24, 2010: BaCon 1.0 build 16 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
July 2, 2010: Added a convenient navigator pop-up to the online documentation.
June 25, 2010: That's right, BaCon 1.0 build 15 is released! It contains some important fixes - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
June 12, 2010: BaCon 1.0 build 14 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
May 13, 2010: BaCon 1.0 build 13 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
May 10, 2010: BaCon has an installpackage for Puppy Linux 'Quirky' now! It can be obtained from here.
April 20, 2010: Thanks to a donation of John Spikowski the forum is ad-free now. Thanks John!
April 17, 2010: BaCon 1.0 build 12 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
April 5, 2010: There is a new project called TinyIDE for BaCon!
April 2, 2010: BaCon 1.0 build 11 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
March 20, 2010: BaCon 1.0 build 10 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
March 15, 2010: BaCon celebrates its first birthday today!
March 6, 2010: BaCon 1.0.9 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
March 3, 2010: E. K. Virtanen from basicprogramming.org held an interview with me, you can read it here.
February 20, 2010: BaCon 1.0.8 released - see CHANGES. Documentation updated.
February 13, 2010: BaCon 1.0.7 released - see CHANGES.
February 7, 2010: BaCon 1.0.6 released - see CHANGES.
January 30, 2010: Some questions about debugging led to BaCon 1.0.5 - see CHANGES.
January 22, 2010: BaCon 1.0.4 released - see CHANGES.
January 18, 2010: BaCon 1.0.3 released - see CHANGES.
January 11, 2010: More improvements on the BaCon VIM IDE.
January 9, 2010: BaCon 1.0.2 released - see CHANGES. Improved the VIM macros also.
January 7, 2010: BaCon 1.0.1 released - see CHANGES.
January 1, 2010: BaCon 1.0 released - see CHANGES.

Download

BaCon BaCon version
BaCon Bash version
BaCon Kornshell version
Documentation online or as PDF
CHANGES
VIM syntax file and some VIM macros for BaCon
Logo for VIM toolbar - convert and Logo for VIM toolbar - run
GtkSourceView syntax file for editors like gedit, Anjuta or Scribes
IDE: TinyIDE for BaCon

Current development versions of BaCon can be found in the beta directory.

Some older BaCon versions can be found in the museum.

Demonstration programs

Base64 encoder here
Base64 decoder here
The Zeller algorithm here
UTF8 encoder here
Simple calculator program here
CGI demonstration here
GTK-server demo here and a Glade file here
Brainfuck interpreter here
Respace files here
ROT13 encoder/decoder here
Mastermind game here and a screenshot
My favorite oneliner
Recursive fibonacci and factorial functions
Walk through a directory tree here
Generate prime numbers here
Generate m3u files here
Convert decimal to Roman here
A Quine program here, an even smaller Quine here
DPI calculator here created by Vovchik
A simple GOPHER client here
System boot time here
Binary file dumper here
BaCon Bullshit Bingo here created by Vovchik
Password generator here created by Vovchik
Testing randomness program here created by Vovchik
The Soundex algorithm here created by Vovchik
The Metaphone algorithm here created by Vovchik
The Double Metaphone algorithm here created by Vovchik
BaCon On This Day here created by Vovchik
Calculate netmask here
Console sinus waves here
Check remote site here modified version here by Vovchik
Get the weather here created by Vovchik
Benchmark program for BaCon, for BCX and for newLisp

BaCon language extensions

Wrappers

Wrappers are BaCon functions built around external libraries.

INCLUDE: Highlevel Universal GUI here

Documentation: hug
Import definitions when using HUG as a shared object: HUG imports
Example Network Calculator program (screenshot)
Example screensaver program
Example Twitter Updater program (screenshot)
Example Password Manager program (screenshot)
The Bullshit Bingo GUI version by Vovchik and a screenshot
Example M3U program (screenshot)
Example dictionary program (screenshot)
Example clock program (screenshot)
Example fractal program (screenshot)
The Pikona Icon Assembler by Vovchik and a screenshot

INCLUDE: SQLite Database Engine here

Documentation: SQLite
Another example program: here created by Vovchik
Example program: demonstration

INCLUDE: GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library here

Documentation: gmp
Example program: demonstration

INCLUDE: Beep the PC Speaker here

Example program: piano

Interfaces

Interfaces are straight imports from external libraries into BaCon.

INCLUDE: nCurses Library here
INCLUDE: Form Library here
INCLUDE: Panel Library here

Documentation: curses
Example curses program: demonstration and another one here
Example form program: demonstration
Example panel program: demonstration and another one here

INCLUDE: GD Drawing Library here

Documentation: libgd
Example GIF animation: demonstration and an animated screenshot
Example drawing program: demonstration and a screenshot

INCLUDE: Glade library here
INCLUDE: Gtk library here
INCLUDE: Gdk library here

Documentation: GTK
GTK example: Source Code Editor with GtkSourceView here and a screenshot
Glade example: calculator program here and a screenshot
Glade example: demonstration here and a Glade file here
GTK example: Go program here and a screenshot
GTK example: demonstration here and a screenshot

INCLUDE: GLUT library here
INCLUDE: GLU library here
INCLUDE: GL library here

Documentation: OpenGL, GLU, Glut
Example molehill program (screenshot)
Example stroke program (screenshot)
Example worms program (screenshot)
Example blender program (screenshot)
Example gears program (screenshot)
Example Teapot program (screenshot) - link with external library!

User contributions

STRCMP function here
Many conversion functions here
EXTRACT function here
LTRIM function here
PARSECOUNT function here
PARSESTR function here
REMAIN function here
REPLACE function here
RTRIM function here
TALLY function here
TRIM function here

Test programs

Test1 here	Test7 here	Test13 here
Test2 here	Test8 here	Test14 here
Test3 here	Test9 here	Test15 here
Test4 here	Test10 here	Test16 here
Test5 here	Test11 here	Test17 here
Test6 here	Test12 here	Test18 here

FAQ

How to install BACON?

What version of Kornshell is required? What version of BASH is required?

How is this converter licensed?

GPL version 3

Why does BaCon need BASH or Kornshell, a.k.a. why was BaCon implemented in shell script?

Shell script was chosen to ensure maximum Unix compatibility; on each Unix version and Linux distribution a Kornshell or
BASH can be found.
Now only one program has to be downloaded to perform Basic-to-C conversion, so no hazzle to download different kinds of
binaries for all the different Unix versions with their particular binary formats and dependencies.

Kornshell website

programming language