30 years later, QBasic is still the best • Hacker News Board

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#171

Post by wvenable » Thu, May 05, 2016, 8:32 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #156

lettergram wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite is the date, where you months are 0 to 11, and days are 1 - 31. Along with optional semicolons, and there's this[1]: true == 1 → true true == "1" → true false == 0 → true false == "0" → true false == undefined → false false == null → false null == undefined → true "\t\r\n" == 0 → true "\t\r\n 16 \t\r\n" == 16 → true "\t\r\n 16 \t\r\n" == "16" → false var a = "foobar" var b = typeof a → 'string' var c = a…

> My favorite is the date, where you months are 0 to 11, and days are 1 - 31. I think this is something you need to blame UNIX for. Or who knows, maybe something made even earlier. That said, there is a logic behind that. Days we usually represent with numbers. Months we often represent with names. So the month numbers are returned as an index of a sequence of names. (Not saying I like this logic, but it sort of make…

The fact that we typically represent dates as "05/05/2016" kind of ruins the argument that we don't represent months as numbers.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#172

Post by agentgt » Thu, May 05, 2016, 8:33 PM UTC

I think Racket comes close but is still a little more adult.

I remember going to GaTech early 2000 and there was a teacher named Guzdial pushing Squeek like it was gods gift to children and humanity. There is nothing wrong with the language but I have yet to see kids use it or like it. I have seen high school kids use racket though.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#173

Post by mhurron » Thu, May 05, 2016, 8:41 PM UTC

duaneb wrote: post #133

GregBuchholz wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://docs.python.org/2/library/turtle.html Python 2.7.9 (default, Dec 10 2014, 12:24:55) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win 32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import turtle >>> turtle.forward(100)

Bingo. Teaching kids programming is exactly what turtle is meant for.

Now that's bringing back some memories.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#174

Post by agumonkey » Thu, May 05, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

Last month I reconnected with QBasic, was surprised about the live formatter and linter. And the pseudo module handling. Each function being seen as a separate entity.

Sorry MS, I didn't understand how valuable it was.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#175

Post by wvenable » Thu, May 05, 2016, 8:43 PM UTC

equalarrow wrote: post #116

Author is spot on. My son and daughter have about 2 and 4 years to go before I probably intro them to programming. When I do, it's going to be a C64 all the way. And a real one. With a real old school monitor and a luxury a didn't have for about a year or two: a floppy drive. I've get a lot of the start with JS comments. But that would be the last thing I do. As a child learning, you need to remove the complexities a…

> Just wayyy to much stuff for a young mind to try to focus on.

Keep in mind that most young kids can use modern technology very easily. My son was easily navigating around computers with a mouse at 3. I had him playing old ScummVM games at 4.

> BASIC, on the other hand, was created _for beginners_.

Yes, but C64 basic was also created when hundred dollar machines had 64k of RAM. And it's pretty painful to use. Not everything about it is just for beginners, it works a certain way because of hardware limitations. You might have forgotten that variables can be 80 characters in length in C64 basic but only the first 2 letters matter (Index$ and Input$ are the same variable).

I've got a Raspberry Pi and if I wanted to go the small locked down computer for programming route I'd probably use that. Get a nice display and keyboard and not mess with technology so obsolete that there is no upgrade path.

And then there's this: http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#176

Post by z3t4 » Thu, May 05, 2016, 8:53 PM UTC

I think Qbasic was so fun because it was easy do do graphics. Doing graphics in any other language is just insanely hard as you have to understand university grade math.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#177

Post by billforsternz » Thu, May 05, 2016, 8:54 PM UTC

iofj wrote: post #113

neckro23 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

var drawing = document.createElement('canvas'); document.body.appendChild(drawing); var ctx = drawing.getContext('2d'); ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo(0, 0); ctx.lineTo(100, 100); ctx.stroke(); There's a bit of ceremony in setting up the canvas, but yes, it's simple.

1) Ok, in firefox I opened the console window. 29 buttons. The one to type this in was the thing at the very bottom that looked like ">> " with no cursor in it indicating that you could type in it. 2) typing your code (on this page) ... nothing happens. Element was added at the bottom of a very large page, element was not visible, so I didn't see anything happen. 3) the added element is a white box on a white backgro…

Your little typo is almost Freudian. Yes it's optimal for getting people to exit. But you're right, not so much for getting them excited.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#178

Post by mayreck » Thu, May 05, 2016, 9:02 PM UTC

Honestly this thread put a tear into my eyes....I was literally your kid like 15 years ago when i first discovered quick basic on my own as a 10 year old. I feel this so deeply. It was much easier to learn that than anything else I've ever learned since.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#179

Post by david-given » Thu, May 05, 2016, 9:18 PM UTC

todd8 wrote: post #92

takno wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anybody at all know what more than 2 buttons do on their microwave? I thought they were mostly there for decoration

The real problem is there is no ISO Standard for the appliance interfaces. Do you press power level first? Or time first. Is it Forth like, numbers then operation or Haskell like, Function then number. My refrigerator has illuminated bars indicating how cold it is set for. Even after downloading a pdf of the user guide I can't figure out if I'm setting it correctly. Placing a thermometer inside and using trial and er…

My microwave has two knobs. One for power, one for time. It turns on automatically when you turn the timer and turns off automatically (sounding a mechanical bell) when the timer hits zero.

I believe the timer is clockwork.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#180

Post by mrbill » Thu, May 05, 2016, 9:34 PM UTC

Don't forget Ahl's "101 BASIC Computer Games"!

I spent hours and hours making stuff written for DEC/MS-BASIC work on my TI-99/4A with its limited language implementation..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_Computer_Games

PDF: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/_Books/101_BASIC_...

I had the later yellow-cover edition myself.