What programming environments run on a PCjr?

[Franko]

Besides resuscitating my rusty Macro Assembler skills and playing around with some Basic programs, I was wondering what other programming environments run on a PCjr. I have 1980s versions of Forth and Lisp on old diskettes. I don't suppose Python has ever been ported to DOS? Flavors of C[+][+]?

[Trixter]

Lisp is possible; I recall seeing lisp interpreters in the 1980s for PC. MASM and Cartridge BASIC are obviously ok, even if you only have a 128KB Pcjr. I have a jrIDE and that allowed me to program on it a few years ago with Turbo Pascal 7. Turbo C/C++ are candidates too. Pretty much any programming environment made in or before 1991 should work.

Python was born as a 32-bit program. It has, amazingly, been ported to DOS, but of course requires a 32-bit CPU to run: http://www.caddit.net/pythond/

[Brutman]

I started with interpreted BASIC (Cartridge BASIC), then learned how to use the IBM BASIC Compiler to speed things up. (Which unfortunately never supported the advanced features of the PCjr ..) After that I moved to the Zbasic compiler which looked more like a structured programming environment and Turbo Pascal 3.02, which ran run on a single floppy system.

[Meknapp]

I definitely did a lot of programming in Turbo Pascal 3.x - it works really well on the PCjr. Unfortunately, it didn't support the graphics or sound capabilities of the PCjr, but I think there were third-party libraries for the Tandy 1000 that might work.

[grantcv1]

I taught myself to program in Turbo Pascal on my PCjr way back in 1984. When I graduated from University the following year with a degree in Electrical Engineering, I got my first job at Boeing largely because I knew Pascal. I've been in the software industry ever since. Were it not for the PCj, unloved as it was, my career would have been very different. I gave my PCjr away in 1987 when I moved on to the Amiga, but last week decided to return to my old friend and found a PCjr on eBay. Now I need to find Turbo Pascal again.

[bagelswitch]

I definitely did a lot of programming in Turbo Pascal 3.x - it works really well on the PCjr. Unfortunately, it didn't support the graphics or sound capabilities of the PCjr, but I think there were third-party libraries for the Tandy 1000 that might work.

see viewtopic.php?f=3&t=852 for one such library, that provides simple interfaces for compiled BASIC and Turbo Pascal

[Chuckphd53]

here is a great site for Turbo Pascal ! Ver 3 was also my favorite.....

https://winworldpc.com/product/turbo-pascal/3x

chuck

[toddvernon]

Old thread, but I think Turbo C or C++ is the best choice. I learned Turbo Pascal on the Jr so its near and dear to but C and C++ were a large part of my professional life so it will be my goto. Assembly is great and I need to get back into that. Many years ago...

[Franko]

Assembly is great and I need to get back into that. Many years ago...

Many years indeed. I spent way too much of the '80s running masm on my jr with my nose buried in Peter Norton's guide to interrupts etc ...