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30 years later, QBasic is still the best

nicolasbize.com

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Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#81

Post by jokab »

krm01 wrote: post #28

The warm feeling inside when I just see the word “QBasic”. Prior to QBasic I was always drawing and tinkering with physical objects. QBasic made me realize that computers are just an other canvas. One where you aren’t just a consumer but a tool that allows you to contribute, create art, build useful little programs and games (to play with my siblings during rainy days). As a 10yo then, it felt I could conquer the wor…

This is exactly what i feel. I discovered qbasic shortly after I played with super mario on NES and I thought that qbasic could be my gateway to create games.

Funny I ended up developing LOB apps instead of games because eventually my interests led to databases and dynamic apps.

I guess if tools like unity or real engine existed back then I might have been a games developer. Maybe. Now i still play around with unity but not as much as i want to because of several side projects.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#82

Post by indymike »

DanBC wrote: post #27
blunte wrote: post #23

Not to be contrarian, but Python is even simpler than Basic. You don't have GOTO, but you don't need it. Just using a subset of Python language you can do anything you need, and with less syntactic noise.

How do you draw a line on the screen in Python? Here's BASIC. I'm not saying this is good. But it is easy. SCREEN 13 LINE (X1, Y1) - (X2, Y2), COLOUR

This is where a lot of modern languages are hard for kids. You have to find a library to do things you want to do.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#83

Post by amelius »

dragonwriter wrote: post #36
DanBC wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you draw a line on the screen in Python? Here's BASIC. I'm not saying this is good. But it is easy. SCREEN 13 LINE (X1, Y1) - (X2, Y2), COLOUR

> How do you draw a line on the screen in Python? Using only stdlib: import turtle turtle.penup() turtle.pencolor(colour) turtle.setpos(x1,y1) turtle.pendown() turtle.goto(x2,y2)

I tried it and it works. But that drawing window seems almost broken. It doesn't repaint properly when I resize it, and closing it seems impossible.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#84

Post by pmiller2 »

wsc981 wrote: post #4

I like BASIC and recently been thinking it might be nice to do some modern game dev on BASIC. My father got me into programming on a TI-99/4A [0] machine, so the BASIC language always has a place in my heart. However, I recently also came across a nice game development course from Harvard, CS-50 [1] (an excellent course, much recommended!). And for CS-50 the Lua language is used in combination with the LÖVE [2] frame…

Tell me you had Extended Basic, the Editor / Assembler, the speech synthesizer, and the expansion box for the TI. :) I didn't have E / A or the expansion box, but I did have Extended Basic and the speech synthesizer, and just those were a lot of fun. Using a cassette tape as a storage device was kind of clunky, but it worked; I would have much rather had a floppy drive or 2. OTOH, I don't miss the primitive editing mechanisms. Line numbers suck.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#85

Post by abraxas »

Not sure you are aware but there is a modern single board computer you can buy or build that boots to MMBasic which is a modern elegant and performant Basic heavily inspired by various Microsoft Basics.

The computer is called Colour Maximite 2 and has a small but devoted community that’s constantly improving the platform.

You can purchase CMM2 from a handful of vendors or make your own.

I highly recommend one for a kid that is starting to dabble with programming.

Kind of a homepage:

https://geoffg.net/maximite.html

8 bit guy review:

https://youtu.be/IA7REQxohV4

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#86

Post by ashleyn »

russellbeattie wrote: post #54

The weird thing about QBasic is that it came out in 1991, when Windows was already well established. So even though I started developing in the 90s, I immediately used Visual Basic and never even heard of QBasic for at least a decade or so later... maybe more. Lately there's been posts on HN reminiscing about QBasic, which is great, but it seems almost like a niche group of people who in the 90s were still using DOS…

> Lately there's been posts on HN reminiscing about QBasic, which is great, but it seems almost like a niche group of people who in the 90s were still using DOS a lot. (Which, granted, was a lot of people). But I completely missed it - it almost feels to me like it didn't exist and someone retconned history to add it in.

VB costed money, Qbasic came free with the operating system. There was an active QB scene well into the late 2000s owing to the fact that many poorer families would buy secondhand equipment that had Qbasic on it totally free.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#87

Post by publicola1990 »

makach wrote: post #2

Basic was, and still is, an excellent language for introduction to programming. Yes, there are things you shouldn't do, but that applies to every programming language. There is nothing quite so simple, pure and fun as the older programming languages. Everything is a little bit bloated today - but it is infinitely much better when done right than you could ever do with these old languages. for introduction, kudos! jus…

Does Pascal serve that purpose better, and even now through Lazarus provide a very viable software development platform?

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#88

Post by publicola1990 »

ksaj wrote: post #48
dragonwriter wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you draw a line on the screen in Python? Using only stdlib: import turtle turtle.penup() turtle.pencolor(colour) turtle.setpos(x1,y1) turtle.pendown() turtle.goto(x2,y2)

I am guessing that is straight-up LOGO on Python.

It is turtle library inspired by Logo alright, but important thing is that it was available from very early versions of python onwards, and by default available when python is installed.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#89

Post by publicola1990 »

Igelau wrote: post #70
blunte wrote: post #23

Not to be contrarian, but Python is even simpler than Basic. You don't have GOTO, but you don't need it. Just using a subset of Python language you can do anything you need, and with less syntactic noise.

> Just using a subset of Python language you can do anything you need, and with less syntactic noise. Okay, I'll bite. How does one check for keyboard input without blocking in Python? And remember, you said "simpler" and "subset", so do your best to avoid imports.

Turtle is packaged with the default python distribution, for as long as I can remember, so I don't find importing it that much of concern in this case. It is like importing math.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#90

Post by xtracto »

empressplay wrote: post #67

BASIC is a good place to start, but so is Logo, and there are plenty of modern Logo interpreters such as https://turtlespaces.org

Second this. I myself started with logo when I was 7 years old. Gratification was way more "immediate" than BASIC. After a bit, I moved into Basic, where I spent days and days doing small games, until a family friend introduced me to C and I found Allegro.

I miss those days...

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