(Poll) Why use QBASIC?

Discuss whatever you want here--both QB and non-QB related. Anything from the DEF INT command to the meaning of life!

Moderators: Pete, Mods

I program in QuickBASIC because....

It's the best programming language, EVER!
3
16%
It's much easier to learn than C, Python, or anything else for that matter
4
21%
My circa 1997 PC came with it preinstalled
1
5%
I didn't know that other programming languages existed and were freely available.
2
11%
You must mean FreeBASIC.
5
26%
Nostalgia. I miss my 8086!
2
11%
It's useful for real-world programming tasks. Seriously!
2
11%
My primary computer is an 8086
0
No votes
I get paid for it.
0
No votes
I'm a masochist.
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 19

historian
Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2007 12:11 pm

(Poll) Why use QBASIC?

Post by historian »

I didn't know QuickBASIC (and its mutant, QBASIC) was still around.
________
HONDA CROSSROAD SPECIFICATIONS
Last edited by historian on Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sid6.7
Veteran
Posts: 318
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:51 am
Location: west USA
Contact:

Post by sid6.7 »

i see a flame war in the brewing. i'm moving this over
to general topics so real questions can be asked/answered
on how to use Qbasic without distraction....
Erik
Veteran
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:31 pm
Location: LI, NY
Contact:

Post by Erik »

I actually still use it for nostalgia and b/c it's quick and easy to throw something together... :D
Nodtveidt
Veteran
Posts: 826
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:24 am
Location: Quebradillas, PR
Contact:

Post by Nodtveidt »

Where's the option for "I don't use it anymore"?
User avatar
{Nathan}
Veteran
Posts: 1169
Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2004 6:08 pm
Location: The wetlands of central Ohio, USA
Contact:

Post by {Nathan} »

Nodtveidt wrote:Where's the option for "I don't use it anymore"?
=

It? "You must mean FreeBASIC."
Image
Nodtveidt
Veteran
Posts: 826
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:24 am
Location: Quebradillas, PR
Contact:

Post by Nodtveidt »

{Nathan} wrote:
Nodtveidt wrote:Where's the option for "I don't use it anymore"?
=

It? "You must mean FreeBASIC."
Incorrect. You don't win an internet!
roy
Veteran
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:39 pm
Location: London

Post by roy »

Nathan is correct, there are many people that have tried Freebasic and have given up in despair. freebasic.net can not even stand criticism, when a poll was conducted to find out whether people wanted more democracy in order to stop chaos deleting and locking threads, the response to the vote against the admin was to close the subforum.
User avatar
Imortis
Veteran
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2005 8:44 am
Contact:

Post by Imortis »

Don't drag that here. There is no need to revive a dead thread for that kind of post.
Image
roy
Veteran
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:39 pm
Location: London

Post by roy »

I did hope that someone else would reply but as there does not seem to be enough interest in FB I will just add this.
Galleon,Ildurest,CG etc. are trying to bring QB into this century but the FB fanatics are trying to write a completely new language in competition with VB and .net. Give us a break , what chance do you think you have. Power Basic has to be paid for but is worth the investment if you are serious about Basic.
Nodtveidt
Veteran
Posts: 826
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:24 am
Location: Quebradillas, PR
Contact:

Post by Nodtveidt »

Roy, shut the fork up before I sent one hundred plumbers with tack hammers to your house to rearrange your ass.
roy
Veteran
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:39 pm
Location: London

Post by roy »

Yes, that is the level of response you would expect from the "bottom" half of FB posters.
User avatar
Stoves
Veteran
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:24 am
Location: Nashville, TN

Post by Stoves »

What kind of changes to FB are you trying to avoid? I'm very new to FB, and so far I like the new capabilities. Even though there's a lot of tedious changes I've had to make to several QB programs to make them run in FB, I've been fairly pleased with the backwards-compatibility so far. Are there a number of QB commands that are going to be abandoned entirely? I guess I'm not up to speed on the evolution of FB.
roy
Veteran
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:39 pm
Location: London

Post by roy »

Let me know what you think in 6 months time. For a start , why should you have to make tedious changes to your programs.
The main reason I wind them up is because they are always knocking QBasic , as per historians post at the start of this thread but it is only fun on my part.
User avatar
Stoves
Veteran
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:24 am
Location: Nashville, TN

Post by Stoves »

Yeah, it would definitely be nice to just copy and paste from QB to FB and be able to immediately start running the program. If it used to be that way, and FB code has been changed over time so that FB is no-longer that backwards compatible, then I take your point. However, I was never under the impression that FB was ever 100% backwards compatible with QB, so I guess I never expected it to be.

As far as FB programmers knocking QB, I grant that from a language perspective, QB has a number of limits that make it difficult to accomplish certain tasks. However, from a programmer perspective, I don't see how anyone could argue that programming in FB requires a lower-level (in the sense of lower being closer to machine language) understanding of computer systems and programming in general than QB. That's one of the things I love about QBasic. It takes way more creativity and in-depth understanding to program complex games, 3d demos, utilities, etc. in QBasic than in FreeBasic. In other words, I believe that, in general, experienced QB programmers are naturally far superior to experienced FB programmers.

I'm excited about the potential for creating more complex programs with ease in FB, but I'll always come back to QBasic to challenge my understanding, gain more in-depth knowledge of how a given program runs on a machine, and often more satisfaction with the end result.
Nodtveidt
Veteran
Posts: 826
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:24 am
Location: Quebradillas, PR
Contact:

Post by Nodtveidt »

Roy, I am glad you have decided to replace me as the "community troublemaker". You play the role so much better than I ever did.
cha0s
Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:41 am
Location: IL, USA
Contact:

Post by cha0s »

Ok, if you'd like to play then at least follow your rules. Between now and 6 months ago, what major changes were made to break user code? How many of those decision's justifications did you disagree with? Obviously such answers will flow off your tongue.

Don't think me getting criticized was why we shut down the forum. That's just the manifestation the ugly beast took in its dying days. We had a troll problem and we solved it... fast and hard. Is this the spillover onto Pete's site? :P

P.S. This is what I expect from the people posting about how bad FB.net is http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9104

These actions are unacceptable.
roy
Veteran
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:39 pm
Location: London

Post by roy »

The reference to six months meant the time it would take Stoves to get fed up with it.
I packed up FB after two months but that was a long time ago.
Now I will hand back to Nodtveidt as the troublemaker because I have made my point and am getting fed up with this stupid argument.
User avatar
Stoves
Veteran
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:24 am
Location: Nashville, TN

Post by Stoves »

roy wrote:The reference to six months meant the time it would take Stoves to get fed up with it.
I packed up FB after two months but that was a long time ago.
Now I will hand back to Nodtveidt as the troublemaker because I have made my point and am getting fed up with this stupid argument.
I guess I'm confused as to what about FB caused you to become fed up with it. Like we noted earlier, it's not 100% compatible with QB (maybe not even 80-90%), but if it never was intended to be completely compatible, but rather similar enough that someone familiar with QB could start programming in FB almost immediately, I don't see how that's a problem.

I've liked FB so far, because there hasn't been a many brand new things I had to know to start coding, and there's a ton of new powerful features that let me do a lot of new things with ease.

I'm sure I'm ignorant of most of the issues, but I'm just curious what about FB was making you fed up with it and what you think will make me fed up with it?
User avatar
Mentat
Veteran
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:39 pm
Location: NC, US

Post by Mentat »

I actually started with something called FirstBASIC, which I thought was a QB. It's pretty close. By the way, I' just signed up todoay. Anybody have helpful hints,tips,ideas,etc for a newbie? Well, I know bit about QB.
User avatar
Stoves
Veteran
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:24 am
Location: Nashville, TN

Post by Stoves »

1. Read all the issues of QBExpress. There's a ton of sweet tutorials and links to interesting projects.

2. Check out the tutorials section for many other helpful stuff.

3. Post on the forums often.

4. Never pet a burning dog.
Post Reply