The Universal Guide to QBASIC OS

The Universal Guide to QBASIC OS's

Overview

Every programmer, even us, at one time or another feels the calling of the Operating System (OS). That uncontrollable urge to make your own GUI, with message boxes, popup boxes, drop down menus, and more. Ah yes, there's no feeling like running with the big dogs -- or at least thinking you are.

OS's, depending on the experience of the programmer, run from simple start bars and screen savers to Windows Explorer type file managers, audio control, and image viewing. Those who make the applications to go with their OS's are something to glorify. After all, it takes some real dedication to work so hard on a program windows does ten time better...

Step 1 - Acquiring the OS

As stated above, OS's are generally not difficult to come by...at least one would think with all the programmer's "working on them." Fore example,

Products

% Complete

Bob's OS

95

Seen this before? You check back a year later and it might be 96% complete. At this rate one might calculate the programmer would be lucky to live, well, a few more hours. Upon finding a healthy young programmer, one might be intrigued by the plethora of screen shots glorifying the home page. Upon such an intriguing finding, one might jump to the conclusion that this is a nothing like anything he or she has ever seen before (perhaps borrowing this suggestion from the text at the bottom of the screen. As you begin salivating in anticipation you click the download now button. A satisfying click from your mouse assures you that although nothing has yet happened, you did in fact click. A download screen pops up! All you have to do now is wait the thirty minutes for the curiously large file to complete download.

Step 2 - The Installation

Ahh yes. You finally have the file. You're just one step away from total OS glory. You unzip the file...to another zip file. OK. unzip that one. 116 files unpacked. Now...what to run...ah ha -- a setup program. SETUP.EXE Sounds logical, right? You run it. Would you like sound [y/n]. Well sure, why not? Directory to install to? What the...you thought all files had been properly extracted, but OK...

Right...just moved all the extracted files to a new directory. OK - ah BOB'SOS.EXE. You run that and on to step three...

Step 3 - The OS

The screen changes resolution mode and goes black. And goes black...that's it. ESC + CTRL? CTRL + ALT + DEL? Nope, no response. Wait! Ah ha "This application cannot be restored and will be terminated," a Windows 9x dialog boxes informs you. Perhaps the master OS doesn't like the QB OS. Restart in MS-DOS mode. Run BOB'SOS.EXE. Let's see...

Screen 12, a few system beeps, and a gray (color 7) bar at the bottom of the screen with white foreground, black background text that says "START."