Current version: 1.2 Alpha (snapshot)
It's finally here! BexIDE is an open-source mini-IDE for Axe and (extended) TI-BASIC (by that I mean external libraries such as xLib, Celtic 3, etc). It was written in and requires .NET Framework 4.0. Anything else I would say here, besides the features overview, can be found in the README.
FeaturesCustom syntax highlightingWith the way I've set up BexIDE, you can choose which words you want to have highlighted, as well as the color
and font weight! All you need to do is simply edit the settings XML file!
Custom tokensNow, this may or may not be a little confusing. Basically, BexIDE comes with another XML file called tokens. In it are groups of all the tokens for TI-OS as of, I believe, OS 2.43
plus ASCII equivalents of the commands in Axe and third-party libraries such as Celtic 3 and xLib. If you open the XML file, you'll see what I mean; each token has a string value, a byte value, and a description. This is where the custom part comes in. You can change
anything in this file, and your changes will be applied. For example, if you want to change "ln(" to "naturalLogarithm(" then go right ahead. Just change the
value property. You can even create short-hand coding! As an example, if you wanted to make the text "_USELESS_" be equivalent to "3->A" on the calculator, all you would need to do is add a token element where the value is "_USELESS_", the byte value is "0x330441" (where 0x33 is 3's bytes, 0x04 is the store arrow, and 0x41 is A). It's that easy!
Token viewerThis isn't really an amazing feature, but if you don't want to open the tokens file, I've included a token viewer which groups all of the loaded tokens into a nice little tree-view where you can view their text, byte values, and description. You can also double-click on a token to have it added to a text-box, add its parameters, and then insert it into your code!
Sprite editorI bet you wanted this, right? But yes, BexIDE has a sprite editor! You can easily design and insert sprites into your code! You can even change the width, height, and scale (scale is only for the editor; it makes it smaller or larger) of the sprite. As of this version, it simply prints the sprite as one line, but in future releases I will make it so that the designer splits the hex data for you.
Direct-to-8XPNo need to worry about fussing with text files and the 8XP programs- BexIDE saves directly to the 8XP! Don't worry though, Uncle BlakPilar isn't stupid. You can, if you wish, import and export your code to text files and, because of the editor I'm using, export your colored syntax to pretty HTML!
CommentsLike the token viewer, this isn't an awesome feature, but it's helpful. You can add end-of-line comments in BexIDE beginning with the customary double forward-slash (//), and they will be removed at build time.
But wait, there's more!Remember: this is only in version
alpha. Once, with all of your help, the bugs are removed and this version is working good, BexIDE has another card up its sleeve. I will be implementing a .NET portion to this IDE in which I will attempt to parse your BASIC code (possibly with modified syntax like Axe, I haven't decided yet though) into your choice of C# or VB.NET and compile it into a .NET app for the computer! So, in a sense, this will be the Axe of the calculator for the computer!
The meat and potatoesNow, I think it's time I get to the heart of this post. I need you, yes you, Omnimaga community, to help me with this project! The more people I get to use this and find bugs the better this can become and the quicker I can get to making the .NET portion! I've attached both the source and just the binaries, for those of you who like to view sources and those of you who just like to use the programs. If you do peek at the source and find ways in which I can make this better,
please let me know! I say it in the readme, but still. I want this project to be one of the best out there!
Downloads:
binaries (executable),
sourceScreenshot:
