Inerplays: Learn To Program BASIC

MarVelo · Mon 25/09/2006 03:19:50

I got a program from the local second hand store called
"Interplays Learn to Program in BASIC" It says its Junior High level which might be a bit over my head sadly.Ã,Â

CD Case:

I just now installed it but i have to get to bed for school tomorrow. I'll tell you all more tomorrow night when i get a chance to play with it.

monkey0506 · Mon 25/09/2006 03:58:31

I'd recommend...oh...you installed it? No taking it back now then. Oh well...just better snap the disk in two and format the hard drive before any further damage is done.

BASIC annoys me. I don't know...it's...quite basic honestly...very very simplistic. It's good I suppose for beginning programmers.

It's interesting that Interplay came out with something like this though...didn't really quite expect that. :o

I hope that it will teach you some of the basics of computer programming (though the language of C++ is closer to that of AGS script).

MashPotato · Mon 25/09/2006 05:21:48

Hey, at least it's more advanced than Turing, which is the only programming language I know ^_~. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I start to apply my (non)super-Turing skills to AGS scripting...

Good luck with using the program to learn BASIC, hopefully it will be a good one ^_^

voh · Mon 25/09/2006 12:00:15

Little known fact: The first community voh was a part of when he got internet was the quickbasic community

If you're interested in BASIC, your best bet would be to check out Freebasic (and the FreeBasic IDE to develop in).

Freebasic is not limited by the DOS limitations, and outputs windows executables. It's fairly easy to work with OpenGL through it, yet it's still almost 100% QB compatible.

"FreeBASIC - as the name suggests - is a completely free, open-source, 32-bit BASIC compiler, with the syntax the most compatible possible with MS-QuickBASIC, that adds new features such as pointers, unsigned data types, inline-assembly and many others."

R4L · Mon 25/09/2006 12:21:58

You should also check out my School Crisis thread about different programming languages. From what I have been told, you should want to learn a object-oriented programming language.

voh · Mon 25/09/2006 15:38:44

Telling someone they "should" do something implies that the other choices are inferior. OOC has its merits, but it isn't the holy grail of programming. Besides, if somebody is interested in BASIC, then by all means, work with it! The Qmunity (ehehe) is friendly and supportive, and a good place to hang.

Nice thing about FreeBasic: "FreeBASIC currently runs on 32-bit Windows, Linux, and MS-DOS." It can make native executables for all of those, though for DOS you'll need a DPMI host, like CWSDPMI.

I'm a big basic advocate. I love the language

Dan_N · Mon 25/09/2006 20:50:32

Yeah, I used to use basic.

When I was 8 or 10... on the HC, then I used QBasic on my 286 and 386. Now, I use Pascal. Borland Pascal. It's quite easy to use, the commands are basically in English. As for C++, I tried it, but failed miserably. I don't know, it's just much more complicated with all those commands that seem to be in klingon or something.

Now, I'm looking for Visual Basic for win98 (but to no avail so far, any help would be apreciated) so that I can use the windows dialogs to make some interactive fiction games, then some CybText games and then, maybe even graphics games. I noticed that people these days don't even know what MS-DOS is! (most of the people, that is) So, I'm hoping that by using visual programming languages and making games for windows (although I despise that program) people will be more attracted. Whatevah... wow, I'm drifting.

What's this then? Interplay made a manual for BASIC?! Oh. My. God. (I'm speechless, I'm not talking in a high-piched voice) Umm... didn't Interplay make great games in, I don't know, C?! What in the hell?! Isn't Interplay still working today? I bet they're not using BASIC! Hmm. Freaky.

But, anyway, listen man, BASIC is what it says: BASIC. And although I've seen some amazing things done with it, it just doesn't cut it. C maybe to advanced, but that's what the big boys use. Or USED, as everyone is making games for windows in Visual C. Pascal is intermediate, if you ask me. (and you didn't, I know, that's why I cry in the closet)

Hope this helps some way, even if you know you're superior to one person.

Kudos! - The Dan

LGM · Mon 25/09/2006 21:07:20

I'd say start with VisualBasic.NET. You can get the Express version for free from Microsoft.

Dan_N · Mon 25/09/2006 21:41:27

Yeah, well... I've been there and it had only the new fangled and improved XP (God I hate those letters!)version. No 98. :'( But thanks anyway, input is good.

Kudos! - The Dan

SilverWizard_OTF · Mon 25/09/2006 22:22:14

I used to programm with the assistance of QuicjBasic, i like that language because it is quite simple but also powerful for the creation of good and useful programs.
But the language i LOVE is C!!! Well, i haven't programmed with it yet

but honestly, i like very much the way that it's functions, syntax and logic work. I like very much AGS scripting and i am sure that if i get a version of C or C++ or Visual C, i'll get stucked with it!

voh · Mon 25/09/2006 23:23:53

Dan_N_GameZ, before you say BASIC is BASIC, check out Freebasic. It's far from being basic. It can read C libraries, it can be used for web apps (as it can be run as cgi), it does directdraw and opengl.

It's as powerful as C is, and it's entirely open source and free. What more could you ask for?

Before any of you state that BASIC is less powerful than C, nowadays that isn't true anymore. There are BASIC dialects out there (darkbasic, blitz basic, and freebasic) that can do anything C can, and do it close to or just as well.

* voh takes a chill pill

I'm better now.