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FreeBasic

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Re: FreeBasic

#61

Post by makmanalp »

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…

I'm so excited about this because I first got interested in programming via the same book that was for some reason on a shelf in my primary school's computer room!!! They did show us basic computer literacy stuff which was already ahead of its time but no programming or anything like that.

I remember not really understanding at the time and then years later coming across Visual Basic and the name ringing a bell, and then I was off to the races! So much fun.

Re: FreeBasic

#63

Post by bitwize »

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…

The Ted Felix tutorial reminds me of the beginner's guide I got with my VIC-20 -- easy enough for a five-year-old (me) to read and follow, and it got me thinking of the kinds of programs I could build on my own.

Re: FreeBasic

#64

Post by debo_ »

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…

I found that book in a library as a kid -- or maybe a similar one, it's hard to remember now. I do recall typing in long listings from the book and then trying to "fix" the compile and runtime errors by randomly trying things.

Re: FreeBasic

#65

Post by debo_ »

lproven wrote: post #60
Zardoz84 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OP forgot the Basics.

Re: FreeBasic

#66

Post by pjmlp »

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…

BASIC dialects were already quite advanced in the 1980's, VMS Basic, Turbo Basic, Quick Basic, AMOS, Acorn Basic, for example.

Originally BASIC used a JIT compiler, it was due to the hardware limitations of 8 bit systems that it was know as interpreted language for most folks.

16 bit and 32 bit BASIC supported structured programming, AOT compilation and everything one would expect for systems programming.

Re: FreeBasic

#67

Post by pjmlp »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #51
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 S…

As Timex 2068 owner can confirm the superiority of its BASIC and extensions.

However for games, I needed to use the 48k emulation eprom cartridge, and with 128K ZX was on the edge again.

Re: FreeBasic

#68

Post by pjmlp »

replwoacause wrote: post #62

This group is trying to bring back VB. Not BASIC but related. https://www.remobjects.com/elements/mercury/

It is not like VB.NET with Windows Forms is that different from VB 6.

Unless you care too much about the AOT compiler or the easiness to create and use COM libraries.

Re: FreeBasic

#69

Post by mbirth »

livrem wrote: post #32
idle_zealot wrote: post #12

I've been dismissive of BASIC as an outdated and terrible language since reading some old programs written in it. But reading the docs and examples for FreeBasic actually make it look decent. Static typing, decent syntax, and I don't even have to start all my lines with 10 20 30 so I can JUMP to them!

Serious question: What makes BASIC BASIC? I don't see anything in the FreeBasic example code that looks anything like what GWBASIC was 40 years ago. No line numbers and not a single GOTO. Is there still support for compiling old style BASIC or did the BASIC name move on to mean something completely different from what it used to?

That reminds me: There’s PC-BASIC available for all platforms that emulates GW-BASIC:

https://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/

Since I’m kind of a data hoarder, I’ve put my GW-BASIC files from the early 90s on GitHub:

https://github.com/mbirth/gwbasic

Re: FreeBasic

#70

Post by 7thaccount »

behringer wrote: post #58
7thaccount wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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!

That would be hilarious
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