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I've got an old book about learning to program in BASIC. It's very well written, entertaining, and does a great job of teaching the first steps in computer programming. It's also my first book about programming, which started it all for me. :)

Now there's another person who would like to learn programming, and (since I can't be there to teach him myself) I cannot think of a better book to recommend him. Sure, the language is outdated, but the basics of programming haven't changed, and the book is just so well written that I haven't yet seen an equivalent (not that I've looked, admittedly).

There's just one catch - since the book is old, it's written about some dialect of BASIC that used to be popular on mainframes some 25 years ago (or so I gather). It's a thing with obligatory line numbering, no proper text editor (all editing happens on command line via line numbers), etc. That was already severely outdated when I first held the book.

Fortunately for me (and others) I found out that the syntax was almost entirely compatible with Microsoft QBasic. The only difference I remember is that in the book string variables had to be suffixed with ¤ while QBasic required $. Somehow they had both ended on the same key on that old keyboard, so I discovered this myself.

Now, I could recommend getting QBasic or QuickBasic, but I wonder if there isn't something better and more contemporary. Textmode screen, limited slow graphics and 64K of available RAM is sort of educational, but...

Any suggestions?

Vilx-
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2 Answers2

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You could try this: http://www.qb64.net/

It purports to something like what you require.

Important Note however: I have never tried this myself, and cannot vouch for it in any way. If it turns out to be a virus or something, then regard this as a disclaimer!

Stephen Holt
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    I re-trained myself to program using qbasic after several years of not coding at all, even in it's very limited form, so qb64 sounds like a good way to go. Sort of off topic to your actual question: Depending on what type of programming he would like to do, PHP might be another good alternative because of the extensive community of developers who are eager to help each other. :-) It is primarily a web language, but I have heard of it being used for other things as well. – TecBrat Mar 10 '12 at 04:26
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    QB64 is the way to go for the closest QBasic/QuickBasic compatibility on 32bit/64bit chips. I remember it when it was called QB32. :P – Chris Kent Mar 21 '12 at 08:10
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bobsmith833's answer looks like the best way to run GW-BASIC (old, line numbers) and Q(uick)BASIC code on a modern OS like Windows 7.

Still, if you'd like something better and more contemporary, i recommend Python; it's free, has a clean syntax, is cross-platform, and very popular because of its flexibility, extensibility, and (built-in) modules.

The only things QBasic does better than Python are the documentation and easy low-level system access to speaker and display. Still, with a great tutorial like Think Python (of which i loved the earlier Python 2-only version) and a modern IDE like PyScripter, Notepad++ with NppExec, or SciTE, i'm sure you'll love it.

Cees Timmerman
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  • If I could choose the programming language, BASIC wouldn't be my choice either. Probably C#. Unfortunately in this case that's not an option - not unless I give up on that book. Of course, I'm sure there are other good books out there, but I just don't know any. – Vilx- Mar 28 '12 at 09:05
  • What do you think of the two books i linked to? – Cees Timmerman Mar 28 '12 at 09:15