Just had to tell you guys this story. Somebody gave our friend xcskier a really bum steer. He was given a Basic Random file containing a record description plus 8 values. Aparently he was told that he could just print these records out to his printer, hence the original printer problems of this thread.
He sent me the file so I could convert it to a text file for printing. Here's a summary of the problems I encountered with the file:
1) The format of each record was not what he was told, which I discovered with a hex editor.
2) Each 44 byte record was padded out with nulls for a total record length of 128 characters which is the default for Random when you don't specify a LEN= on the OPEN.
3) There are 172 records on the file. The first and last look like they have meaningful data values. The rest of the records have garbage exponential values.
4) By pure chance, I ran across a discussion of MBF (Microsoft Binary Format) in Ethan Winer's QuickBasic book. I recompiled my conversion program using the /MBF switch, and now got meaningful data values for all except the first and last records.
Whoever gave him this file, created it with an old version of QB or other Basic prior to QB 4.0, hence the values were in MBF. My guess is that the first and last records were updated recently using QB 4.0 or 4.5, so these were now in the current IEEE format.
I sent him the new converted file in ASCII text. Hope he can use it.
Live and learn.
*****
Statistics: Posted by moneo — Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:21 pm
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Moneo: thanks for the offer. I was waiting to get a result from the local computer consultant before replying.
The consultant, I believe, tried the same thing you are offering: the Qbasic datafile is compiled and he ran it through some kind of interpreter or text editor, to interpret it. But what came out needs further interpretation: the Qbasic file opens as hieroglyphics before interpreting, he was able to get a table of letters but which still aren't intelligible.
He said if I could tell him the format of the records, he might be able to write a short program that would provide further decoding. I did tell him the format, but he's not been able to achieve further success.
Do you still want to try?
Yeah sure, I'll give a shot. How was the file created originally? Do you have the source code for the program that created the file?The consultant, I believe, tried the same thing you are offering: the Qbasic datafile is compiled and he ran it through some kind of interpreter or text editor, to interpret it. But what came out needs further interpretation: the Qbasic file opens as hieroglyphics before interpreting, he was able to get a table of letters but which still aren't intelligible.
He said if I could tell him the format of the records, he might be able to write a short program that would provide further decoding. I did tell him the format, but he's not been able to achieve further success.
Do you still want to try?
In one of your posts you said: "it's a random file". Do you mean a QB random-type file, or do you mean some unknown file? Big difference.
Answer my questions and go ahead and email me the file.
*****
Statistics: Posted by moneo — Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:24 pm
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The consultant, I believe, tried the same thing you are offering: the Qbasic datafile is compiled and he ran it through some kind of interpreter or text editor, to interpret it. But what came out needs further interpretation: the Qbasic file opens as hieroglyphics before interpreting, he was able to get a table of letters but which still aren't intelligible.
He said if I could tell him the format of the records, he might be able to write a short program that would provide further decoding. I did tell him the format, but he's not been able to achieve further success.
Do you still want to try?
Statistics: Posted by xcskier — Sat Jan 28, 2006 1:58 pm
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I'm gonna try to help you.
1) Post the original QB program of yours where you were trying to print the file to the BubbleJet. I need this to see what data you were trying to print.
2) You later said that the file was a random file. If the file is not larger than 1MB, email me the file to:
moneo@prodigy.net.mx
3) I'll convert the file to a text file and mail it back, so that you can open it in Notepad and print from there to your BubbleJet.
Will that solve your problem?
BTW, the fact that QBasic can't print directly to your BubbleJet is not a problem of QBasic nor the printer. It's a problem of newer versions of Windows like NT and XP.
For the same reason, you can't access any USB devices from QBasic either. When QBasic was developed these devices did not exist and QBasic has not been upgraded for years and is in fact obsolete.
*****
Statistics: Posted by moneo — Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:51 pm
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Thanks to all. At this point I'm going to take the floppy to a local PC consultant, who says "no charge if I can't recover the data". If he can't do it, can anyone recommend some other consulting company I could try?
The local is not a Qbasic expert, he's just generally familiar with it.
Statistics: Posted by xcskier — Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:54 pm
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(dead -> QuickBASIC)
Statistics: Posted by Patz QuickBASIC Creations — Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:06 pm
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QB was only made for DOS.
Statistics: Posted by The Awakened — Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:36 pm
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Yes, I could have googled on Freebasic....as I could have done for my previous questions. So why register and post to this bulletin board?
So the general question now is, how do you folks print from Qbasic? Do I need some later version of Qbasic?
Statistics: Posted by xcskier — Mon Jan 23, 2006 6:28 pm
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www.freebasic.net is where you want to go.
Statistics: Posted by The Awakened — Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:27 pm
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When I went to Pete's homepage and clicked on "freebasic" under "Learn Qbasic", the page says "coming soon".
Can anyone tell me where/how to get freebasic?
Statistics: Posted by xcskier — Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:48 pm
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Statistics: Posted by Deleter — Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:52 pm
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My guess is that there must be a Windows version of Qbasic which would drive the printer. Any suggestions?
Statistics: Posted by xcskier — Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:50 pm
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