eGP is a mod of the original GP application that allows the full functionality and extended functions such as bigNums, bigMult, 16:9 aspect ratio, and more. eGP stands for Extended GP because of all the black additions.

GP runs on a virtual machine (VM) that includes a parser for the textual version of GP, an intepreter for GP code, a garbage collector to manage memory, and a set of primitives for things like graphics and sound I/O, file system access, support for language structures such as functions and classes, arithmetic operations, etc. (You can get a full list of primitives by typing 'help' to the GP command prompt.)

Most of GP is actually written in GP itself. That code is stored in textual form in a set of .gp files stored in the runtime/lib folder. The textual form of GP maps to blocks, so the GP library code can be viewed (or even edited) as blocks. Eventually, we hope that we'll use the GP blocks editor to edit and extend the GP system itself. But when working with larger amounts of code or making global changes to the entire library, its often more practical to work with the textual form.

When GP is started, it reads all of the .gp files in the runtime/lib folder. It then reads and executes the code in runtime/startup.gp, if that file exists. Finally, it looks for a function named "startup" and runs it if it exists. The startup function is usually defined in runtime/startup.gp.

GP can also be run in interactive mode by typing:

egp-win -

When started in interactive mode, GP doesn't read runtime/startup.gp or run the "startup" function. Thus, instead of opening GP's graphical editor, you'll see a GP welcome message and command prompt:

Loaded 127 library files from runtime/lib
Welcome to GP!
gp>

You can run commands such as:

exit - quit GP
help - print a list of primitive operations built into eGP
print (3 + 4) - print the result of an expression
inspect (list 1 2 3) - inspect an object
go - restart the user interface

The Wiki on this repository will eventually include articles explaining how GP works, how it loads the entire system from "runtime/lib" when it starts, and how to make changes.

Ask questions and share what you've created with others on the "GP Mods" section of the GP Forum (http://gpblocks.org/forum). Unfortunately, due to a constant barrage of spammers creating accounts, we had to disable automatic account creation; just drop an email to "gpteam" at gpblocks.org.

To avoid potential confusion with the original GP, which is used by students and educators around the world, this modification is called eGP.

All source code in this repository is under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. You are allowed (and encouraged!) to fork and modify it, but you must share your changes