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FreeBasic

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Re: FreeBasic

#51

Post by ThinkBeat »

DeathArrow wrote: post #9

I learned Basic on a ZX Spectrum clone when I was a kid. It was harder to structure the code because there were no functions and subroutines, just line numbers and goto. No while, no fors. Just ifs. When I've learned x86 assembly later, it didn't seem too different to me. This variant of Basic is more close to Pascal for me than the Basic I've learned.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum (Sinclair BASIC) had subroutines and looping. See: https://worldofspectrum.org/ZXBasicManual/zxmanchap4.html https://worldofspectrum.org/ZXBasicManual/zxmanchap5.html

Timex Basic featured on the "clones" they produced is said to be a a superset of Sinclair basic, in which case then Timex Basic has the same features.

I am not 100% when it comes to the ZX81. I did most of my programming on the ZX Spectrum.

I wrote a database engine and front end on it. (There really was no backend and frontend it was all just one program. But the engine was versatile and easy to build a new front end on top of. I tried selling it for a while without luck. (Which was probably a good thing).

Looking back on it now its embarrassing. I had no real idea what a database was, or how to functioned inside. But given my age and tools available it was ok-

Re: FreeBasic

#52

Post by ThinkBeat »

marttt wrote: post #17
jessehorne wrote: post #2

I started programming when I was around 12. My teacher told me about how he learned BASIC in school...so I went home and looked up BASIC. I had a lot of fun messing around with qbasic/qb64 and finally FreeBASIC. Semi-related but one of my favorite books of all time was Creating Adventure Games On Your Computer by Tim Hartnell. It's wild to think how much of an impact that book and FreeBASIC had on me. If I could upvo…

Thanks very much for this book reference. Our son (10yo) is learning to code and after quite a bit of research (and to my own huge surprise), I've pointed him to QBASIC (via DosBOX). I'm just a hobbyist, and approaching 40, so maybe this is pure nostalgia. But I do think text adventures (especially writing one yourself) are still a great way to teach coding -- and the whole keyboard-centric paradigm of computing. As…

For me TurboPascal set the standard for power and ease of learning. The IDE was fast and solid.

It would work if you were a newbie and grow with you as you got more advanced. The language manuals were well written and in places quite funny.

Compile time was ultra fast, and if you wanted to go deeper you could. (assembly).

I dont know of any popular IDE right now that is as complete and easy to use.

Re: FreeBasic

#53

Post by jasaldivara »

DeathArrow wrote: post #44
bzzzt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've started on the ZX Spectrum too, as I recall the built-in BASIC had GO SUB and RETURN statements so you could do subroutines. It even had FOR loops. Allowing only a single letter for string variable names was a pain though ;)

Then I don't have a good memory of it. GO SUB line number isn't the same as using GOTO?

With GOSUB you can use RETURN, but not with GOTO. GOSUB is for subroutines. (At least that's how it was on MS BASIC.)

Re: FreeBasic

#54

Post by marttt »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #52
marttt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks very much for this book reference. Our son (10yo) is learning to code and after quite a bit of research (and to my own huge surprise), I've pointed him to QBASIC (via DosBOX). I'm just a hobbyist, and approaching 40, so maybe this is pure nostalgia. But I do think text adventures (especially writing one yourself) are still a great way to teach coding -- and the whole keyboard-centric paradigm of computing. As…

For me TurboPascal set the standard for power and ease of learning. The IDE was fast and solid. It would work if you were a newbie and grow with you as you got more advanced. The language manuals were well written and in places quite funny. Compile time was ultra fast, and if you wanted to go deeper you could. (assembly). I dont know of any popular IDE right now that is as complete and easy to use.

Is the FreePascal IDE essentially a clone of the TurboPascal IDE, or does it have any shortcomings?

Re: FreeBasic

#55

Post by zozbot234 »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #52
marttt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks very much for this book reference. Our son (10yo) is learning to code and after quite a bit of research (and to my own huge surprise), I've pointed him to QBASIC (via DosBOX). I'm just a hobbyist, and approaching 40, so maybe this is pure nostalgia. But I do think text adventures (especially writing one yourself) are still a great way to teach coding -- and the whole keyboard-centric paradigm of computing. As…

For me TurboPascal set the standard for power and ease of learning. The IDE was fast and solid. It would work if you were a newbie and grow with you as you got more advanced. The language manuals were well written and in places quite funny. Compile time was ultra fast, and if you wanted to go deeper you could. (assembly). I dont know of any popular IDE right now that is as complete and easy to use.

The QBASIC/QuickBASIC IDE was also quite good for its time. Either way, there's still nothing quite like it on modern systems. There are a few terminal text editors with intuitive TUI's and key bindings, but none of them provides the full IDE featureset and easy access to documentation that these tools had. (Hopefully we'll get there at some point. Perhaps by starting from the codebase of a modern GUI editor like lapce and providing a TUI frontend to expose the same features.)

Re: FreeBasic

#56

Post by zozbot234 »

marttt wrote: post #54
ThinkBeat wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me TurboPascal set the standard for power and ease of learning. The IDE was fast and solid. It would work if you were a newbie and grow with you as you got more advanced. The language manuals were well written and in places quite funny. Compile time was ultra fast, and if you wanted to go deeper you could. (assembly). I dont know of any popular IDE right now that is as complete and easy to use.

Is the FreePascal IDE essentially a clone of the TurboPascal IDE, or does it have any shortcomings?

It's a very close look-a-like and it works quite well in practice but the codebase is quite messy, with many things still being based on old MS-DOG and its quirks. Would need a ton of refactoring to make it more extensible on modern systems.

Re: FreeBasic

#57

Post by sigzero »

k310 wrote: post #19

I looked up BASIC for mac, and lo and behold, there seems to be only one, by Nikolay Denislamov that is useful, and it's limit-ware (program size) and $12 to go "premium". Not even GAMBAS. I found Basic! and techBASIC on the ipad, and they might run on Apple Silicon. The latter is not in the appstore these days.(It seems to have morphed into something else) (quick download) Basic! runs on Ventura/MacMiniM2. How well…

Xojo (formally RealBASIC) might be what you want if you just want to learn. It runs on Mac, Windows, and I think Linux and allows you to target the web, iOS, and Android.

Re: FreeBasic

#58

Post by behringer »

7thaccount wrote: post #25
behringer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there are some BASIC dialects that can give other modern languages a run for their money. Check out on of my favs: https://www.cerberus-x.com/cxDocs/Programming_Language%20ref...

"Cerberus X is a high level programming language based on the popular 'Blitz' range of languages, and was inspired by both Java for its streamlined language, and BASIC for its readability." Interesting language. I've never heard of Java as streamlined though ;)

Sounds like an in-joke :D I wonder if it's one of those "don't be like Java" things!

Re: FreeBasic

#59

Post by bazoom42 »

ikari_pl wrote: post #24

I think the fact that the old 8-bit computers booted straight into BASIC and came with amazing manuals (at least Amstrad) that taught you programming was amazing and what made me a software engineer in the end. I shared some of this amazement and examples in: https://retrofun.pl/2021/05/18/hobbyarding/ But with BASIC getting so much hatred since the 70s... I started with the famous Dijkstra quote and did an investiga…

Dijkstra was a blowhard anyway. He belived students should prove programs correct on paper before they were allowed to type them into the computer. Basic on the other hand allows a fast feedback cycle of experimenting and learning.

Re: FreeBasic

#60

Post by lproven »

Zardoz84 wrote: post #46
DeathArrow wrote: post #9

I learned Basic on a ZX Spectrum clone when I was a kid. It was harder to structure the code because there were no functions and subroutines, just line numbers and goto. No while, no fors. Just ifs. When I've learned x86 assembly later, it didn't seem too different to me. This variant of Basic is more close to Pascal for me than the Basic I've learned.

weird clone. ZX Basic had for loops. I know very well because I wrote a program to help me to memorice multiplication tables on a ZX Spectrum when I was a kid .

It wasn't a weird clone, it's flakey memory from the commenter.
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