I used to know how to Write in BASIC, But Basic no longer ..

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Dear all:

In the old days of programming, I used to be able to write a few
useful programs for my own personal use using BASIC. I had a commodore
and I could write in BASIC.

Heck, even the friends I had who used IBM 86 series computers had
those computers with basic language.

What happened to that language? All of a sudden, it has been 20
years since I have thought about BASIC. But I now have some programs
that I would like to write. I don't know any other language.

I tried to search for BASIC. However, I came up with qBASIC or
VBasic. They are not exactly the same. They don't have to good old:

10 Print "x"
20 input y
30 ? y*10
40 end.

Does anyone know where I can get the good old fashioned BASIC
which still uses the 10, 20, 30 notation?

I have some simple programs that I want to write and I'd like to
be able to just write them without having to learn a whole new
language. I guess you can call me a simple, home programmer who is an
amatuer and who does not need the complexity that comes with learning
something like Java or Visual C++.

Please help point me to the right direction. Is there a place I
can still get good old BASIC?

thx in advance.

signed: HobbyProgrammer

 

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In article <1120504431.457091.201200@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
<tang91766@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Does anyone know where I can get the good old fashioned BASIC
> which still uses the 10, 20, 30 notation?

QBASIC is probably the way to go. The be honest, the line number thing
is a horrible anachronism from the days poor line-editors. You're better
off without it.
--
Jim Leek
jrleek@soda.berkeley.edu

 

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> The be honest, the line number thing
> is a horrible anachronism from the days poor line-editors. You're better
> off without it.

Agreed.

Yabasic (www.yabasic.de) is ok for simple stuff, and free.

Alex

 

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In article <1120504431.457091.201200@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
tang91766@yahoo.com wrote:

> Please help point me to the right direction. Is there a place I
> can still get good old BASIC?

On the Mac, there is Chipmunk BASIC. Free and great. There is a PC
port of it, but I here it isn't as good. Being exclusively Mac, I can't
say.

jt

 

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Hi:
I am the originator of the thread. My name is
HobbyProgrammer(BASIC).

Here is sort of a dumb question: How do you write a program
without line numbers? Does the program just run from top to bottom?
But what about if you need to write GOTO or Gosub?

Do you have to give the GOTO destination a name? Then, aren't
you just having to name a whole bunch of locations? Aren't you just
trading simple line numbers for more complicated subroutine names?

Sorry. I know this is probably a very amateur question, but I am
an amateur ;-).

My other quess/Question is that BASIC's editor was probably
created because in the old days, the program editors (text editors)
were not sophisticated enough such that you can just point and click
and drag and drop. You were only able to edit one line at a time. So,
if you wanted to edit line 10, you can't just use the arrow or mouse to
go up to line 10 on the screen. Rather, you had to type the entire
line 10 right where your cursor is and write the entire line 10 over.
Do you think this is a correct way to think of the old editors?


I know you may think that the old edit is an anachronism, but
wasn't it nice to be able to write a program and run it a little bit at
a time without having to complie it each time? I would think typin
"RUN" right in the editor and being able to see the part of the program
run is a nice thing?? No?

thx in advance.

signed: HobbyProgrammer(BASIC)

----------

James Robert Leek wrote:
> In article <1120504431.457091.201200@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
> <tang91766@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone know where I can get the good old fashioned BASIC
> > which still uses the 10, 20, 30 notation?
>
> QBASIC is probably the way to go. The be honest, the line number thing
> is a horrible anachronism from the days poor line-editors. You're better
> off without it.
> --
> Jim Leek
> jrleek@soda.berkeley.edu

 

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> Here is sort of a dumb question: How do you write a program
>without line numbers? Does the program just run from top to bottom?
>But what about if you need to write GOTO or Gosub?
> Do you have to give the GOTO destination a name? Then, aren't
>you just having to name a whole bunch of locations? Aren't you just
>trading simple line numbers for more complicated subroutine names?

The answers is that you shouldn't be using GOTO at all. Usage of GOTO
has been discouraged for years because it leads to very bad/unreadable
code. Many modern languages (C or Java for example) have a GOTO command,
but it is almost never used. There just happens to be a few rare cases
where a goto statement is abolutely required and there is no better way.
Usually breaking out of deeply nested loops.
Anyway, yes, you have to label(name) the place you wish to GOTO to, but
it's so rare it's no big deal.
>
> My other quess/Question is that BASIC's editor was probably
>created because in the old days, the program editors (text editors)
>were not sophisticated enough such that you can just point and click
>and drag and drop. You were only able to edit one line at a time. So,
>if you wanted to edit line 10, you can't just use the arrow or mouse to
>go up to line 10 on the screen. Rather, you had to type the entire
>line 10 right where your cursor is and write the entire line 10 over.
>Do you think this is a correct way to think of the old editors?

That's pretty close. Actually, BASIC was made so long ago (1968) that
having a screen to work with was a huge luxury. People more commonly
worked on teletypes, so line numbers were a way of post inserting lines
you may have missed, and allowing the computer to figure out where you
wanted to stick it. (Whoops, I forgot to put in this line, It should got
between 60 and 70, call it 65 and the computer figures out where it goes.)
Really, this wasn't even a great idea at the time, but it worked. There
were even small programs written for renumbering your source code for when
you ran out of space between linenumbers. When real line-editors came
out, like ed, they made this system totally obsolete. It only persisted
so long because people were used to it. It's kind of a BASIC trademark
afterall.

> I know you may think that the old edit is an anachronism, but
>wasn't it nice to be able to write a program and run it a little bit at
>a time without having to complie it each time? I would think typin
>"RUN" right in the editor and being able to see the part of the program
>run is a nice thing?? No?

That doesn't really have anything to do with the line numbering. That
works with any interpreted (non-compiled) language. Other interpreted
languages include: Python, Perl, Scheme, LOGO, and many others.

--
Jim Leek
jrleek@soda.berkeley.edu

 

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On 8 Jul 2005 09:43:14 -0700, tang91766@yahoo.com wrote:

> Hi:
> I am the originator of the thread. My name is
> HobbyProgrammer(BASIC).
>
> Here is sort of a dumb question: How do you write a program
> without line numbers? Does the program just run from top to bottom?
> But what about if you need to write GOTO or Gosub?
>
> Do you have to give the GOTO destination a name? Then, aren't
> you just having to name a whole bunch of locations? Aren't you just
> trading simple line numbers for more complicated subroutine names?
>
> Sorry. I know this is probably a very amateur question, but I am
> an amateur ;-).
>
> My other quess/Question is that BASIC's editor was probably
> created because in the old days, the program editors (text editors)
> were not sophisticated enough such that you can just point and click
> and drag and drop. You were only able to edit one line at a time. So,
> if you wanted to edit line 10, you can't just use the arrow or mouse to
> go up to line 10 on the screen. Rather, you had to type the entire
> line 10 right where your cursor is and write the entire line 10 over.
> Do you think this is a correct way to think of the old editors?
>
> I know you may think that the old edit is an anachronism, but
> wasn't it nice to be able to write a program and run it a little bit at
> a time without having to complie it each time? I would think typin
> "RUN" right in the editor and being able to see the part of the program
> run is a nice thing?? No?
>
> thx in advance.
>
> signed: HobbyProgrammer(BASIC)
>

heres a small complicated "Hellow world" in Visual Basic (not the fake VB
..Net)

sub Main()
LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime: 'This is a label
if msgbox("Do you want to see this question again?",VBYesNo)=VBYes then
goto LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime
end Sub

the same in VB's father language, QuickBasic (Qbasic):

LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime:
INPUT"Shall I repeat myself?",A$
if left$(A$,1)="y" or left$(A$,1)="Y" then goto LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime
END '(not needed)

But head over to any of the basic NGs and ask about GOTO and GOSUB and you
will most likely start a small to medium size flamewar over the matter.

Most basics will do 'Run', but usually as a button or a command in a drop
down menu, and most don't need to compile to do so.

--
"I'm programmed to never perform any extraneous tasks."
Please change 'nospam' to 'jcomcp' to reply.
----- http/jcom.shorturl.com ----

 

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===quoted===
heres a small complicated "Hellow world" in Visual Basic (not the fake
VB
..Net)

sub Main()
LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime: 'This is a label
if msgbox("Do you want to see this question
again?",VBYesNo)=VBYes then
goto LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime
end Sub

the same in VB's father language, QuickBasic (Qbasic):

LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime:
INPUT"Shall I repeat myself?",A$
if left$(A$,1)="y" or left$(A$,1)="Y" then goto LoopMeBabyOneMoreTime
END '(not needed)
===/quoted===

Strangely, you can use most of the second example in VB6 as is. You
could, if you wanted, even add the line numbers! There's very little
aside from IO that you can't do exactly as the OP has requested right
there in MS's most popular programming [sic] language.

Ruffin Bailey

 

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On 8 Jul 2005 09:43:14 -0700, tang91766@yahoo.com wrote:

> Here is sort of a dumb question: How do you write a program
>without line numbers? Does the program just run from top to bottom?
>But what about if you need to write GOTO or Gosub?

Something like this:

if A$="yes" then loop1 else loop2
{loop1
print "You said yes"
}
{loop2
print "why no?"
}
..
..
..

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