After frantically expanding MMBasic for Pico and Pico2 (including PicoCalc), throwing in everything he could think of and reaching the limits of the Pico and Pico2 chips, Peter Mather has decided it’s time to let it rest in peace There won’t be any new development for MMBasic. There is the possibility of bug fixes, though. This is not your Grandfather’s BASIC (although it can still run most of his code!)
3 Likes
Hopefully efficiency tweaks as well as bug fixes… Lets hope he writes MMbasic for Linux on CM5 now 
Honestly, MMBASIC is an incredible testament to what CAN be done on a small microcontroller. I’ll continue to use it occasionally for retro stuff, but really what I do is mainly C programming that I like to play “closer to the hardware” than MMBASIC allowed me to do. And there’s Python for everyone else. LOL
1 Like
His next big project is Python on the Pico Computer 3
1 Like
Are you sure? He seems to be talking about MMBasic development still on TheBackShed Forum.
MicroPython for his Pico Computer 3 seems to be a “things I can do with Claude’s help” project.
Pretty sure. He said there won’t be any new features added to MMBasic and all his development work was going into MicroPascal. Of course, he’s free to (and usually does) change his mind at any time so who knows?
1 Like
While I am not a user of MMBasic (BASIC isn’t really my thing even though it was my first programming language, on the Apple //e), this is still in a way sad to hear.
1 Like
I’m still not seeing where he said that, though. Like, actually said, not AI said.
While Peter Mather might be the main developer of the PicoMite code, it’s Geoff Graham’s project. Geoff doesn’t seem to have given up on it in any way. Not adding new features because the code is stable and there’s no new hardware they’ve found to run it on is quite different from abandoning a project from lack of interest.
Peter made a new release, PicoMite V6.03.00, just last week. There have been contributions to the github repo since then, too.
1 Like
He said, “Here are the release notes for V6.03.00. I think this might be as far as it goes for the PicoMite until/unless they release an upgraded chip”
and
“As someone commented previously: It is time to stop changing the platform and time to start writing some interesting/educational/useful/entertaining applications using what is there.”
To me (and almost everone else on the forum) that means ending new MMBasic development for the PicoMite. Yes it’s Geoff’s project but Peter Mather is the coder. Geoff is the hardware guru. I didn’t say they’re abandoning the project just that development of MMBasic is at an end, which it is. Sure, bugs will continue to be fixed but don’t look for any new features. Peter is turning his interest to the Pico Computer 3 and MicroPython.
3 Likes
QuickBasic hasn’t had a release since 1990 and people still use it to make stuff for DOS. i’m failing to see the issue
1 Like
I agree, I think the point they are making is that they can’t squeeze any more into the rp2350 so from that perspective the codebase is “finished”. I assume any bugs found will be fixed in subsequent maintenance releases.
3 Likes
I don’t see anything negative here.
I think it’s great that MMBasic is now fully developed for these chips, so we can focus on writing good programs.
At times, it was very disruptive when new features were constantly being added or older ones were being changed.
1 Like
Exactly! Keeping up with Peter was a full-time job. Who had time to learn all the new features before a whole new bunch came out?
1 Like
I have been absent from these boards for a while, and apparently some stuff went down. Peter apparently starts supporting the PicoCalc in the main build, Holy Crap! MMBasic goes into maintenance mode, probably not a big surprise, I mean it is pretty feature complete. Whats this business with a new keyboard BIOS, now I have to tear both of them apart to flash them. Sigh!
I think it was referencing the current.Version that he’s just finished. Go over to the forum and ask him.
I did and he confirmed that 6.03 is probably the last version. As I said, he’ll still provide bug fixes for major issues but other than that there won’t be any new features or versions. The available memory space is pretty much maxed out. If he does add any new features, then some old ones will have to go. He’s eyeing GOTO, GOSUB, READ, DATA as potential candidates since they’re not really necessary given the structured constructs available in MMBasic.
2 Likes
The thing is removing those would make it much harder to translate many old BASIC programs to MMBasic.
1 Like
Yeah, but Peter doesn’t care about converting. He wants to attract original program writers. Personally, I’d miss them since I’ve been using them since 1965 when BASIC was only one year old.
2 Likes
I haven’t seen any suggestion they would actually be removed, particularly read/data which are Basic fundamentals. GOSUB is definitely not recommended versus true subroutines and functions but is just marked as “deprecated” in the manual. goto has a very small proper role and lots of improper ones
1 Like
He hasn’t put it into print. He’ll only remove them if a major new feature is wanted/needed. The deprecated functions will be the first to go.