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30 years later, QBasic is still the best

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Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#101

Post by sigzero »

publicola1990 wrote: post #87
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?

Maybe. If I wanted to stay BASIC, I'd probably go with Xojo.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#102

Post by astrostl »

I can't help but notice that many of those who breathlessly exclaim that starting with GOTO will cause brain damage started with GOTO themselves.

I also notice that, "I did [x] and ended up fine" doesn't seem to consider the possibility of ending up better than fine without doing [x]. Still, I greet these arguments with suspicion and find them somewhat self-destructing.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#103

Post by superdisk »

myself248 wrote: post #77
nsenifty wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first time I saw X = X + 1 in a ZX Spectrum basic program listing, I thought it would cause the computer to catch fire. I was 9 though.

My dad was offended that such an algebraic abomination should be the way the computer represented things. I started putting the LET keyword in front (which was strictly optional), and it bothered him a lot less.

Just introduce your dad to Prolog.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#104

Post by raz32dust »

Must have been around 1997. My dad was in his 40s then and had never programmed or learned coding, but is a tinkerer at heart and used to love to make small IC devices after his day job (which was not related to technology at all). He learned it, loved it so much, and created so many nifty little pieces of software - a file encryption program, an alarm clock, a stop watch, tiny fun games etc. He used to be so excited to show me his programs (I was 7 or 8) and helped me to pick it up as well.

Later he started learning C++ to write more advanced programs, and although he did create some programs, I could see the complexity putting him off. Just the knowledge that that was the real programming, and that he was not enjoying it any more discouraged him, and he stopped coding altogether. It makes me sad. I wish he could have stuck with Basic and just created more cool stuff with it. There definitely is just something so cognitively easy about QBasic.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#105

Post by pugworthy »

astrostl wrote: post #102

I can't help but notice that many of those who breathlessly exclaim that starting with GOTO will cause brain damage started with GOTO themselves. I also notice that, "I did [x] and ended up fine" doesn't seem to consider the possibility of ending up better than fine without doing [x]. Still, I greet these arguments with suspicion and find them somewhat self-destructing.

I sound like an old fart saying this but, "When I was a kid, GOTO is all we had AND WE LIKED IT!"

The whole "don't use GOTO!" thing is really something that started cropping up when we started to get C and Pascal compilers, and it became something not as good to use. Before them, it was BASIC all the way baby, and we used GOTO because it worked for what we had.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#106

Post by pugworthy »

trilinearnz wrote: post #96

If anyone was ever alarmed by the GOTO et al within BASIC, it's worth remembering that the 'B' stands for "Beginner's". I think the language serves an excellent role in firing the curiosity of an amateur, whether young or old.

GOTO is like weed - some people swear it corrupted the minds of a whole generation, others are just like "Whatever" and moved on.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#107

Post by georgeburdell »

I got my first computer in 1995, but it wasn't until 1998 that a classmate told me about QBasic. I remember my first "program" was a text-based RPG, except I didn't know about variables so it was basically just a digital choose-your-own adventure book where I enumerated all possible outcomes. I must have written a few thousand lines before looking at some of the pre-written programs and the help manual and learned how foolish I was.

The next few years would be an escalating arms race among friends for who could make the coolest game, culminating with an extremely slow ray traced 3D shooter

I became pretty good at programming, but having matriculated into college in the early 2000s when software engineering was somewhat unpopular, I'm a physicist now. When my son gets a bit older QBasic might not be a bad starter language

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#108

Post by stevekemp »

amasad wrote: post #39

I wanted to make a classic BASIC interpreter for Repl.it, and as I was slowly evolving it -- making line numbers optional, adding labels etc -- I discovered that I was reinventing QBasic! Docs: https://docs.repl.it/misc/basic Source: https://repl.it/@amasad/pg-basic

I made a simple BASIC interpreter in golang, and one of the sample programs allows you to enter BASIC into a browser and see a PNG of the output.

I called that "visual basic" even though it is nowhere near the same thing!

https://github.com/skx/gobasic

I had way more fun than I expected tinkering with it though, made me very nostalgic for the ZX Spectrum which was my first computer.

Re: 30 years later, QBasic is still the best

#109

Post by mark-r »

smcameron wrote: post #13
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…

One must definitely beware of looking back with rose colored glasses. A couple years ago I came across the BASIC source code for Oregon Trail, and I thought, "Hmm, might be fun to convert it to C." Started poking at it, and... Blargh! It was pretty disgusting. I don't think the program, disgusting as it was, was really unusual or bad for the time, though, and I am certain I wrote similar code on my trusty TI99/4A and…

MECC was the organization that introduced me to computers. It was an HP 2000C timesharing system that could only be programmed in BASIC. I never used Oregon Trail but I did write my own game. I have to agree that a simple dialect of BASIC is perfect for learning, even if it's very crude by modern sensibilities.
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