Richard Ashbery, known for his ArtWorks, er, artworks1, has launched a new website dedicated to graphics programming in the version of BBC BASIC supplied on RISC OS Computers.
The riscosbasic.uk site is aimed at anyone interested in creating geometric art through programing in BBC BASIC, and takes its inspiration from the collection of 55 BBC Micro books available from Drag ‘n Drop.
As well as sample graphics created by programming in BASIC, the site includes example programs to create more, along with explanations of what they’re doing in order to achieve the results they do. Starting at the very first principles of drawning a line, then a rectangle, through circles and arcs, to concentric and overlapping ellipses, the site is very much aimed at beginners to graphics programming, and might have some appeal to those new to the platform.
It’s just a single-page site at the moment2, but Richard does plan to add more content. The programs are aimed specifically at the Raspberry Pi running at 1920×1080, with a 32-bit colour depth, but should work on all RISC OS computers that can operate at that resolution.
!ReadMe
- Normally, I’d link to Richard’s own website here, on which he shows off those ArtWorks graphics, but on looking now I can see that it is hosted by TalkTalk who are ceasing operations as a web-host. It’s too late to find out from Richard if he’s moved his site elsewhere before I publish this, but I will send him an email and when I hear back, if he has moved it, post a ‘news-bit’ with the new URL.
- The site has been created by building the content in TechWriter and exporting as HTML. Not being a TechWriter user, I don’t know how versatile its output is when doing this, so some of the current simplicity of the site’s design and layout might be a result of that.