| Misc. Miscellaneous Tutorials |
| Link | Description | Author |
| ABC Packets FAQs |
All of the FAQs (frequently asked questions) from the ABC packets. Lots of good stuff here. |
Various |
| Frequently Asked Questions: QBasic |
Many different programming examples, very useful. |
W.M. Bergmann (editor) |
| BIOS Calls in QuickBasic |
Ever wanted to program your BIOS through QB? Read this. |
Aaron Severn |
| Bits |
A good explanation of BITs and BYTEs. Includes source |
Ximmer |
| Computer History Up To 1952 |
A history of the computer up to 1952. Not really relating to QB, but you should still read it. |
Mark Brader |
| Compiling |
A tutorial that shows you how to split up and link together .bas files when your program gets too large to compile. |
WisdomDude |
| Segments and Offsets |
Segments and Offsets explained. Short. |
Milo Sedlacek |
| PC Magazine's POKEs & PEEKs |
An excellent and in-depth article on using PEEK and POKE. This one is unique because it contains info on not just using PEEK and POKE for graphics, but also for accessing just about anything on your computer! (From PC Magazine.) |
David I. Schneider |
| TSR Programming in QuickBasic |
Explains how to write a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) program in QB, which is useful because DOS can't run more than one program at once. TSRs are a work-around. |
G.M. McKay |
|
QB Error Codes |
A list of all the QBasic / QuickBasic error codes that you might face while debugging.
| Microsoft |
|
Appending Data to a .EXE File |
This tutorial explains how you can append a data file, such as BMP, to the end of a compiled QuickBasic program (an EXE file) and have the program access it when it's running.
| Dav |
|
QB Mini Encyclopedia |
Hur's famous QB Mini Encyclopedia. It has more than 50 QB tutorials that Hur found interesting, and comes with a custom GUI program for viewing the tuts. Useful, but many of the topics discussed have since been covered by better tutorials.
| Hur |
|
Building a Compiler |
An extremely brief look at making your own compiler. For beginners.
| Brenden Homan |
|
Copyrights |
How to protect your intellectual property through copyrights. Teaches you what you need to do to ensure that someone else can't steal your code.
| Antony Chesworth |
|
Bit Manipulation |
Doorknob Software explains how to change values on a binary level. This tutorial focuses on changing colors on a bit-by-bit basis, but the information applies to all binary values.
| Doorknob Software |
|
Using Interrupts in QuickBasic |
An overview of how to use interrupts. Includes several examples and then culminates in an interrupt BMP loader program.
| CGI Joe |
|
Using QBASIC to "Prepend" to All Lines in a File |
"QBASIC allows a straightforward solution to the problem of how to add any desired text to the beginning of all lines in a file."
| Unknown |
|
Simple Physics Programming |
A collection of small programs and formulas which simulate various physics effects like wheel skidding, bullet trajectories and car braking.
| Twisted Matrix |
|
The Matrix Tutorial |
"This program uses basic Matrices with the traditional two for-next loops to display rows and columns." A .BAS program with a built-in tutorial.
| Truth and Reconciliation |
|
PEEK, POKE, Memory Management and I/O Ports |
Covers BSAVE and BLOAD, PEEK and POKE and much more. This also teaches you memory commands like DEF SEG, FRE, SADD, SETMEM and CLEAR. I/O commands discussed include INP, OUT, Peek and Poke. The three V's are also discussed: VARPTR, VARPTR$ and VARSEG. Many more commands are covered too. This tutorial covers a ton of random commands, so it's hard to summarize in a few lines. Check it out!
| Anastasios Yalanopoulos |
|
How To Compute Planetary Positions |
A collection of formulas and algorithms to compute elliptical orbits, adjust orbits based on gravity and to mimic the orbits of all the planets in our solar system. Good for making space shooter games, and these formulas can be used to plot the "orbits" of anything, including enemies and bullets.
| Paul Schlyter |
|
Advanced Speed Optimization Techniques for QB |
This has some great tricks for speeding up your program, such as unrolling loops, code movement, precalculated numbers and constants, variable caching, POKE over PSET, and a whole lot more. Highly recommended!
| Toshi Horie |
|
QuickBasic Summary |
A brief outline of just about everything you need to know about QB. It's more of a cheat sheet / reference document that can refresh you on various commands and how to use the GUI. This covers EVERYTHING, but is not thorough at all.
| Prof. Nam Sun Wang |
|
Intermediate Programming Tips (Part 1) |
Discusses user-defined variable types and screen swapping in various screen modes. (BASIX Fanzine #12)
| Alex Warren |
|
Long Filenames From DOS |
Avoiding "Bad Filename" errors when you try to load long Windows filenames in your QB programs. (BASIX Fanzine #11)
| Alex Warren |
|
Including Files In EXEs |
Explains how to append binary files to the end of your EXE programs for use within the program. (BASIX Fanzine #12)
| Ollie Cook |
|
Data Manipulation Tutorials, Parts 1 & 2 |
Part 1 explains many data encryption techniques, including Bit Shifting and Bit Switching. Part 2 explains how to create your own file format, and the basics of reading and decoding other peoples' file formats. (BASIX Fanzine #13)
| Damien Nikodem |
|
Heuristics For A Self-Organizing Sequential File |
Theory article describing what a program must do to self-organize a sequential file, instead of always re-creating files start-to-finish. (BASIX Fanzine #13)
| RudeJohn |
|
Basiliar Data Types |
Covers the various different types of variables available in QB, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and how to use them effectively. Goes into great depth. (BASIX Fanzine #16)
| Unknown |
|
Fast Read From A File |
Explains a quicker way to open binary data files in QB -- instead of byte by byte, you can now open them faster by using a buffer. (BASIX Fanzine #16)
| Thomas Laguzzi |
|
Sleep Via Interrupt |
Mimic the native QB SLEEP command with ASM code and interrupts which will not fill up your buffer. (BASIX Fanzine #16)
| Thomas Laguzzi |
|
Manipulating External Files |
Explains how to use external data files in great depth. Covers OPEN, INPUT, OUTPUT, RANDOM, BINARY, APPEND, LINE INPUT, GET, PUT, EOF and LOF...and more. Very useful! (BASIX Fanzine #17)
| Chris Neth |
|
Formatting Text Into Checkese |
Tutorial on writing out numbers in English text. "Checkese" is taken from the word "check", because we write dollar amounts in both English text and numbers in order to prevent banking mistakes. (BASIX Fanzine #17)
| The Math Wizard |
|
Reading The CMOS |
Accessing the CMOS to determine how much memory your computer has, especially if your BIOS returns the wrong amount. (BASIX Fanzine #2)
| John Woodgate |
|
All About ANSI |
An introduction to ANSI (American National Standards Institute) codes, which are used for controlling output on a remote computer. A thorough introduction. (BASIX Fanzine #3)
| Ben Ashley |
|
Binary Tree Search |
Part of the Wrox Press's QBasic book, this tutorial discusses searching through pyramid-ordered data sets. (BASIX Fanzine #3)
| Adrian Sill |
|
Rant: Advanced Math Vs. Programming |
How much math do you need to know to be a good QB programmer? This tutorial also does a good job of explaining how to use the oft-misunderstood logical operators AND and XOR. (QB Chronicles #3)
| Singsong |
|
To All Space Wasters Out There |
Some simple ways to decrease the file size of your finished QB programs, for people with limited bandwidth or harddrive space. (QB Cult Magazine #14)
| Sane |
|
Making A Formatted Text Viewer Using DQB - Part 1 |
Instructions on making a readme viewer for your QB program, in case you want to include documentation or a help file for your user to read. (QB Cult Magazine #15)
| Zap |
|
Object Oriented BASIC - Possibility or Pipe Dream? |
Pseudo-code rich article on treating BASIC programming as if it were object-oriented. An interesting and insightful read. (QB Cult Magazine #3)
| Unknown |
|
Coding A Compiler Series #1 |
A brief overview of how to make your own compiler. It briefly covers many important elements of a compiler, with source code examples of an very simple compiler. (QB Cult Magazine #4)
| Gabriel Fernandez |
|
Using The FPU |
"The FPU is a math processor inside your computers processor. Early computers had an external FPU processor, unlike today." This tutorial tells you how to make use of the FPU, with the help of a little bit of assembler. (QB Cult Magazine #6)
| Frej |
|
Introduction To Trigonometry |
Your introduction to SIN, COSINE and TANGENT, as well as the Pythagorean Theorem...and more. Some basic math that is absolutely essential for any type of advanced programming. (QB Cult Magazine #7)
| Matthew R. Knight |
|
Errorcodes, Long File Names, and Other Neat Tricks |
Two unrelated topics discussed in one tutorial: Errorlevels and using "Long" (Windows) filenames in QB. (QB Cult Magazine #8)
| Christopher Charabaruk |
|
Appending Data To Your .EXEs |
"Sometimes, you'll want to have certain data for your program that you don't want to put into a seperate data file (configuration info, CRC signiture for the program part of the executable or other files, etc.). There is a method to check data at the end of your program's .exe file, and to write to it too." (QB Cult Magazine #9)
| Chris Charabaruk |
|
The Printer Is Your Slave! |
Printing text on to your printer using LPRINT. This also discusses more advanced options like outputting italics or underlined text. (QDF #2)
| Lord Acidus |
|
The Boolean Hell |
Boolean logic in QB. Explains AND, OR and XOR, as well as how binary numbers work. (QDF #2)
| Lord Acidus |
|
Face Lift: Signed Variables |
Improving the speed of your program through signed number variables (ie: integers instead of floating points). Helpful and well-written. (QDF #2)
| Lord Acidus |
|
Booting Your Computer |
A look at what happens to your computer when it boots, and some methods to reboot your computer through QB. (QDF #3)
| Lord Acidus |
|
"My Mind Is Going..." |
Using COMMONs and CHAINs to "dump" data and share it between several different programs / modules. (QDF #4)
| Lord Acidus |
|
Warping The CPU |
How to physically modify the annoying internal PC speaker. This tutorial explains how to add a volume control, a headphone jack and an on/off switch. It even explains how to attach a stereo...but I don't know why you'd want PC speaker music playing on your stereo. :P (QDF #4)
| Lord Acidus |
|
QuickBasic Directories |
How to do directory searches in QB by utilizing DOS directly via Interrupt. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 1)
| Hector Plasmic |
|
QuickInsert Sort Algorithm |
Explains how to use and improve upon the free Microsoft QuickSort program, which comes packaged with QuickBasic. (QBNews Vol. 3 No. 1)
| Larry Stone |
|
Using Stub Files to Reduce EXE Size |
"Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System version 7.1 comes with many 'stub' files to help reduce the size of your EXE programs. By linking with these stub files under certain conditions, you will see reductions in EXE size of 2 - 15K." (QBNews Vol. 3 No. 1)
| David Cleary |
|
File Types 100 |
"This article will familiarize beginners to computer programming and the QuickBASIC programming language with the basics of file creation and a brief on the types of files generally used in computer programs." (QBNews Vol. 3 No. 2)
| Richard Vannoy
|
|
Indexing 101 |
The basics of file indexing. (QBNews Vol. 3 No. 2)
| Richard Vannoy
|
|
Using The PSP |
Using COMMAND$ and interrupts to look at the PSP (Program Segment Prefix); useful if you'd like to load your programs from DOS using command line switches. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 2)
| Hector Plasmic |
|
Using The DOS EXEC Function From QB |
Receiving ERRORLEVEL messages from DOS's SHELL command. Requires assembler. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 2)
| Harold Thomson |
|
The Speedy INSTR Function - Programming a Backwards INSTR Routine |
Searching a string for a sub-string using the INSTR function instead of a FOR...NEXT loop. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 2)
| Larry Stone |
|
Directory Swapping |
Using interrupts to return users to the proper DOS drive and subdirectory when they exit your program. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 3)
| Hector Plasmic |
|
Fast File I/O in QuickBasic |
How to speed up the saving and loading of large disk data files. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 3)
| Ethan Winer |
|
Using Stay-Res Plus to make TSR's |
Using Stay-Res Plus by MicroHelp to create terminate-and-stay-resident QB programs. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 4)
| Larry Stone |
|
Peeking at DOS with P.D.Q. |
Using Crescent Software's P.D.Q. program to create TSR programs in QB. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 4)
| Ethan Winer |
|
Format Floppy Disks With QB |
The basics of formatting floppies with QuickBasic. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 5)
| Cornel Huth |
|
Making a Self-Cloning EXE in QuickBasic |
How to create an EXE file that "clones" information to itself by creating a "recognizable" area inside of the EXE itself that can be quickly read and modified. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 3)
| Larry Stone |
|
Self-Cloning EXE's Revisited |
A follow-up to Larry Stone's QBNews Vol. 1 No. 3 article on self-cloning programs. Goes into more depth, and helps with troubleshooting. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 5)
| Ronny Ong |
|
Scenic Views by way of the Video Map |
How to make your QB programs have more "sizzle" along with the "steak" of the programming code. Basically a marketing ploy. (QBNews Vol. 1 No. 5)
| Larry Stone |
|
Fast Screen Printing |
"This article presents a rapid method of displaying a string of ASCII characters on the screen without updating the cursor position." (QBNews Vol. 2 No. 2)
| Christy Gemmel |
|
Multiplications |
Nice tutorial on ASM multiplication functions, such as SHL and SHR. (QB Times #9)
| abionnnn |
|
A Bug Free CALL INTERRUPT |
In the QuickBASIC 4.x environment any fatal DOS error during a CALL INTERRUPT crashes the system. This tells you how to solve that problem. (QBNews Vol. 2 No. 3)
| Cornel Huth |
|
Segments and Offsets |
Memory addresses, segments and offsets. A good explanation, and pretty easy to follow. (QB Times #4)
| abionnnn |
|
Overcoming Procrastination |
A motivational self-help essay on how to overcome procrastination in your programming project...or just about anything else. (QB Cult Magazine #14)
| Steve Pavlina, CEO, Dexterity Software |
|
Organizational Skills: The Key to a Finished Game |
How to organize your time in order to maximize your coding potential, and ability to create a finished game. (QB Cult Magazine #9)
| Gianfranco (Pigeon) |
Programs
