how to learn basic

[karimruan]

I figured out that there are many dialects of basic on the net. Here is what I am looking for... Nothing gambas. I want it to have plenty of documentation online, and I need an editor with syntax highlighting and/or indentation.

Can anyone help me?

[Frak]

REALbasic - Couple hundred bucks, but Linux version is free (as far as I remember)
Visual Basic - Windows only, but Mono implementation still in the works.

There.

[pelle.k]

People are gonna think you're crazy! :)
That said, i used to do a lot of basic programming with PureBasic before i discovered linux (then i started using python). PureBasic is quite advanced, although it isn't object oriented. It's a compiled language, and the GUI parts are built using wxwindows, so it's pretty cross platform. It's available for Windows, Linux, OS X and even AmigaOS!

What was so good with purebasic though was the editor. Built in "function browser", call-tips, autocompletion, API documentation (mark keywords and press f1), smart indenting, super nice syntax highlighting, integrated debugger (nice and simple overview of the variables in the running app), you could create executables in one click, GUI editor for creating widgets, etc etc. It was very streamlined.
You could build .dll's and also import .dll's (if the source wasn't available), as well as use "real" binary .dll's created with C/C++. You could also directly interface with the operating system API (in my case it was the windows API), if funtionality wasn't provided by purebasic functions.
Very nice community, and lots of nice tutorials around.

If i didn't get hooked on python (and OO programming), i would probably still be messing with it. It was lots of fun, and i can highly recommend it if you're looking for a modern basic variant.

[Exodist]

Visual Basic - Windows only, but Mono implementation still in the works.

Mono version, sweet.. I been programming in BASIC since like 4th grade.

[kalaharix]

Hi,

KBasic?

I must say Gambas is just right FOR ME although I accept that the documentation is not very helpful for beginners (like me!).

I use it for commercial-related mySQL work and find it rock solid. I think the IDE is one of the best around. It has both syntax highlighting and indentation.

rgds

[karimruan]

what i don't like about gambas (right now) is that i prefer to do all the coding, not use a gui builder such as the one in VB. I made a web browser in vb, it was fun, but it shoots you right past the basics of the language itself. If I could find a basic tutorial on the BASIC dialect that gambas uses, i would be happy to use gambas!

If anyone knows where to find this, great!

[cammin]

I'd be amazed if this acutally worked.


10 print "what?"
20 goto 40
30 print "Google"
32 goto 90
35 print "I forgot what I was going to put here."
40 print "took 2 seconds using"
44 goto 30
50 print "Who uses basic these days anyway?"
55 goto 120
90 for i= 1 to 100 step 5
95 print ""
100 next i
110 goto 50
120 k=1
122 print "_____"
124 if k<> 1 then goto 150
125 for j= 1 to 3
130 print "| |"
135 next j
140 k=2
145 goto 122
150 end



Anyway.

http://gambasdoc.org/help/lang

[openuniverse]

.

[karimruan]

sdl basic is good, but there really isn't much going on with the community. Maybe i am being too picky!

[LeifAndersen]

I'd be amazed if this acutally worked.


10 print "what?"
20 goto 40
30 print "Google"
32 goto 90
35 print "I forgot what I was going to put here."
40 print "took 2 seconds using"
44 goto 30
50 print "Who uses basic these days anyway?"
55 goto 120
90 for i= 1 to 100 step 5
95 print ""
100 next i
110 goto 50
120 k=1
122 print "_____"
124 if k<> 1 then goto 150
125 for j= 1 to 3
130 print "| |"
135 next j
140 k=2
145 goto 122
150 end

Anyway.

http://gambasdoc.org/help/lang


And that, is why I am happy that Java banned the use of goto. That code is a mess.

BTW, why do you want to learn basic in the first place? Python is much better, and faster, not to mention it integrates with C better too.

[Frak]

I would say learn something like HaXe. It compiles into just about everything and is truly cross platform. C++ for speed, Neko for portability, SWF for super portability.

[karimruan]

I have played with HaXE. I just want to learn a BASIC, don't know why. I have decided on freebasic, but get this error message when I try to compile my hello world program:




mat@mat-laptop:~$ fbc test.bas
/usr/share/freebasic/bin/linux/ld: cannot find -lXpm
mat@mat-laptop:~$




i cannot find the Xpm library anywhere (I THink that is what i need.) Anyone know how to fix this? Sorry about any wierd caps or lowercase, my keyboard has sticky keys! Time to take my lappy apart! lol

[NoaHall]

Try
sudo ldconfig first. Maybe that'll fix it.

[jfloydb]

Can BASIC really produce a working application in the Linux world? I used to program in a structured BASIC that would accutually produce stand-alone Windows applications. Is there a (structured) BASIC that can produce Linux/Ubuntu applications?

[openuniverse]

.

[pelle.k]

Is there a (structured) BASIC that can produce Linux/Ubuntu applications?
As i previously wrote in this thread, yes. PureBasic, is a structured basic (or as close as you can get). It does produce windows/macos/linux(wxgtk)/amigaos binaries.

[karimruan]

where can i get purebasic and an IDE/interpreter. i like gui, do not understand the greatness of coding from terminal.

[pelle.k]

where can i get purebasic and an IDE/interpreter. i like gui, do not understand the greatness of coding from terminal.
Unfortunately, like realbasic, purebasic is a proprietary product. You get it all in one package. IDE, GUI builder, documentation, and compiler. You can download a demo version if you want to try it out though.
Homepage: http://purebasic.com/
User forums: http://www.purebasic.fr/english/
Here's a good intro: http://www.xs4all.nl/~bluez/purebasic/index.htm#top

[mivo]

I second the recommendation of PureBasic. It has been years since I purchased it, and it's really neat to quickly come up with working GUI apps. It's cross-platform, too, and less expensive than RealBasic. There's a good community and a large code archive.

There's a free book that doubles as an introduction to programming and as a textbook for PureBasic. It can be downloaded here (http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewtopic.php?t=37059).

[karimruan]

i will definitely check be purchasing purebasic, but still also want a free one (so I can write any size programs) until then. unfortunately, right now i make enough to pay bills and buy my kid what he needs/wants. Since he comes before my hobbies, it might be a while till i can buy it. Can anyone suggest a free, well popular (By popular, i mean much source code on the net, lots of tutorials, etc) BASIC dialect? I have already checked out sdlbasic, and i love it, but without tutorials (They have documentation, but it just lists all the commands and what they do, I have used it as much as possible, but still need to see the code in action!) I can only do so much. qbasic is for windows, and I can't find very many get straight to the point tuts for kbasic, which seems promising.

If any of you use a basic on ubuntu, let me know which one, where i can get it, how well documented it is on the net (tuts, source code, etc) and I will give it a try.

I love python but basic seems really fun!

[kalaharix]

hi,

I had a good look at Purebasic and liked what I saw - up to a point. There seems to be a problem with cross-platform applications in general: the development favours the dominant OS. I don't say that is wrong, it just does not help Linux developers. Bugs are treated much more casually in Linux Purebasic than in Windows Purebasic. If I were clever enough to write Purebasic I would do exactly the same.

And it's not object oriented.

And if I see one more objection to BASIC on the basis that it uses GOTO statements I will scream - it is just so ignorant. I have programmed various types of BASIC but it must be 20 years since I used a GOTO.

Gambas is Linux only. This means that bugs receive an immediate response from the author.

As with most Linux software, I would not use Gambas to write software for widespread distribution. This is a criticism of Linux rather than Gambas and results from the standard libraries which programs like Gambas rely on. For example QT4 is quite capable of causing problems with software written using QT3. It is not as backwards compatible as it should be.

Having said that, I am using Gambas on two point-of-sale terminals and a separate goods-receiving machine. One of the tills acts as a mySQL server. Works all-day every-day. Gambas is rock-solid.

[openuniverse]

.

[mivo]

Yabasic has been dead for two years: http://www.yabasic.de/

[openuniverse]

.

[rCXer]

I have played with HaXE. I just want to learn a BASIC, don't know why. I have decided on freebasic, but get this error message when I try to compile my hello world program:




mat@mat-laptop:~$ fbc test.bas
/usr/share/freebasic/bin/linux/ld: cannot find -lXpm
mat@mat-laptop:~$




i cannot find the Xpm library anywhere (I THink that is what i need.) Anyone know how to fix this? Sorry about any wierd caps or lowercase, my keyboard has sticky keys! Time to take my lappy apart! lol

Installing freebasic in Ubuntu is a little tricker than people relize. Too bad it's not in the repositories yet. To install it download and unpack the regular linux version (not standalone) to /home/username/FreeBASIC

Then...


cd ~/FreeBASIC/
sudo ./install.sh -i

#Download and install "getlibs-all.deb".
wget http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/getlibs-all.deb
sudo dpkg -i getlibs-all.deb

sudo getlibs -p libxpm-dev
sudo getlibs -p libxrandr-dev
sudo getlibs -p libxrender-dev
sudo getlibs -p libncurses5-dev
sudo apt-get install libncurses5
sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev


There's a thread (http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13487) about this at the freebasic forums.

[squilookle]

10 print "i'm not crazy"
20 goto 10

[bonfire89]

I did QuickBasic back in early highschool...


I'm curious as to why anyone would bother with it in 2009?


also



10 print "i'm not crazy"
20 goto 10

my teacher would fail any assignment that contained a goto... even if it was the end of year project that was worth 30%

[Simian Man]

I can't think of a single reason to use Basic instead of Python.

[karimruan]

I can, pure fun! I am not trying to do any serious programming, i want to learn it for the same reason I play roguelikes, and for the same reason I use dosbox to play kings quest.

Simple, really :)

[bonfire89]

I can, pure fun! I am not trying to do any serious programming, i want to learn it for the same reason I play roguelikes, and for the same reason I use dosbox to play kings quest.

Simple, really :)

fair enough. heh

[kalaharix]

I can't think of a single reason to use Basic instead of Python.

Python is a fine language and much better than Gambas when you need to be close to the OS.

It does not have an integrated GUI IDE. Some see this as an advantage: i don't. Glade sucks.

Database work is much, much, much easier on Gambas.

rgds

[mivo]

I can't think of a single reason to use Basic instead of Python.

I can't think of a single reason to use Italian instead of English, either, or why I need a third language, yet I enjoy learning and using it.

Python is a good interpreted scripting language (though I prefer Ruby), but I'll still use PureBasic if I need a fast and small GUI application. PureBasic generates tiny and incredibly fast binaries/executables that take very little time to cook up. I, too, grew up with Basic (Locomotive Basic, ST Basic, GFA Basic, VB (okay, I was already grown up when I used VB ;))), and I like the language family. It's much like my mother language.

[karimruan]

well said!

[Frak]

Python is a good interpreted scripting language (though I prefer Ruby)
Same. It just flows so nicely.

do this
when this
unless this
end.

[kalaharix]

How about a little challenge to Python supporters? The following Gambas2 code:

1 Deletes a file test.sqlite in the users home directory (if it exists).
2 Creates an SQLite database test.sqlite and defines a table sampleTable with two integer fields, one a sequence (yes, I know SQLite does that internally anyway!) and the other a random number.
3 Fills the table with 10000 records with rollback.
4 Displays the results in a gridview.

I suspect that Python will not produce an equivalent with anything like the elegance (language, not my code!) nor readability of the Gambas code. I will also be surprised if it is as blindingly fast.

On Gambas you need nothing more than a gridview (gridview1) on an otherwise empty form (You could also instantiate the gridview from code). The only bit that may need explanation is the GridView1_Data event. This is called to fill an empty gridview cell as it is exposed (by scrolling). It saves having to load all 10000 records into the gridview with the time penalty that would imply.

A hint for the two flat-earthers in this thread (in case they can't work it out for themselves): there are no GOTO statements!



' Gambas class file
PRIVATE $hConn AS NEW Connection
PRIVATE $res AS Result
'-------------------------------------------------
PUBLIC SUB Form_Open()
DIM iCount AS Integer
DIM hTable AS Table
DIM rTest AS result
DIM sql AS String

'define the gridview layout
GridView1.header = GridView.Horizontal
GridView1.grid = TRUE
GridView1.Rows.count = 0
GridView1.Columns.count = 2
GridView1.Columns[0].text = "ID"
GridView1.Columns[1].text = "Value"
GridView1.Columns[0].width = 55
GridView1.Columns[1].width = 55


WITH $hConn

.Type = "sqlite"
.host = User.home
.name = ""
END WITH

'delete an existing test.sqlite
IF Exist(User.home & "/test.sqlite") THEN

KILL User.home & "/test.sqlite"
ENDIF

'create test.sqlite
$hConn.Open

$hConn.Databases.Add("test.sqlite")
$hconn.Close

'define the table sampleTable
$hconn.name = "test.sqlite"
$hConn.Open

hTable = $hConn.Tables.Add("sampleTable")
hTable.Fields.Add("s_seq", db.Integer)
hTable.Fields.Add("s_rndm", db.Integer)
hTable.PrimaryKey = ["s_seq"]
hTable.Update

'fill the table with generated data
$hconn.Begin

rTest = $hConn.Create("sampleTable")
FOR iCount = 1 TO 10000

rTest!s_seq = iCount
rTest!s_rndm = Int(Rnd(0, 100))
rTest.Update
NEXT
$hConn.Commit

'read the database
sql = "select s_seq as ID, s_rndm as Value from sampleTable"
$res = $hconn.Exec(sql)

CATCH
$hConn.Rollback
Message.Error(DConv(Error.Text))

END
'-------------------------------------------------
PUBLIC SUB Form_Activate()
'change the rowcount of the gridview from 0 to the number of records.
'This triggers the data handling event

GridView1.Rows.Count = $res.Count
END
'-------------------------------------------------
PUBLIC SUB GridView1_Data(Row AS Integer, Column AS Integer)

$res.moveTo(row)
GridView1.Data.text = Str($res[GridView1.Columns[column].text])
END
'-------------------------------------------------
PUBLIC SUB Form_Close()

$hconn.Close
END
'-------------------------------------------------

[kalaharix]

Hi

What? No Takers? I thought all these Python people would be falling over themselves to show how superior Python was in duplicating the Gambas code in this thread. It'll only take half-an-hour.

C'mon, I am genuinely interested in how Python would do this. I haven't set any traps (If I wanted to do that, I would have made my sample more gui intensive)

rgds

[drawkcab]

Lock yourself in a room for a month with an apple IIc.

That's how I learned basic.