Just BASIC 1.0 Beta 2 Released 63
Xampper writes "Just BASIC beta candidate 2 has just been released, and can be found at the JB website. The programming language is based on the popular Liberty BASIC language, and is a slightly watered down, but free, version. Standalone executables can be made, and the language is easy to grasp, especially for beginners." (Note, this is a Windows-specific language.)
NEW (Score:4, Funny)
20 GOTO 10
or
10 WHILE -1
20 PRINT "Who gives a fuck?"
30 WEND
for you structured people
Re:NEW (Score:1)
Re:NEW (Score:1)
Sometimes at work I get handed a project written by "someone else" and asked to fix whatever's wrong with it.
The few C/C++ projects I've done maint on were well constructed and well documented. Time and again, though it's spaghetti code written in VB or g0d help me VBA. I'm not saying you can't write a bad project in C/C++, but I have had exactly one VB project handed to me that I would call professionally done. There are a *lot* of crappy VB programmers out there.
C is only error-prone if the develope
Re:first program (Score:4, Funny)
>LET PC = 5
READY
>AUTO
10 INPUT "Enter post",P$
20 IF INSTR(P$,"first") THEN 50
30 PC = PC + 1 'Post count
40 GOTO 10
50 IF PC > 1 THEN PRINT "You fail it!":END
60 GOTO 10
READY
>
Yet... (Score:4, Funny)
A technically advanced BASIC console app with an supremely elegant and incredibly fast VisualCOBOL GUI warper attached to it?
Nice (Score:1)
Re:Nice (Score:2)
Re:Nice (Score:2)
(Note: many flavours of BASIC have functions in addition to subs these days...)
You recall a BASIC without FOR? MBASIC in DOS 3.3 had FOR loops. Possibly WHILE too, but I can't be sure of it...
And then there's
I guess IHBT...
Re:Nice (Score:1)
Kemeny's (that was the guy's name, wasn't it?) BASIC didn't have FUNCTION and SUBs as we currently mean. Ours are a ALGOLism, I guess.
Instead, you had:
10 A=20
20 GOSUB 100
30 PRINT B$
40 STOP
100 B$="HELL"
110 FOR I=1 TO A
120 B$=B$+"O"
130 RETURN
That is, subroutines wasn't named, but called by its line number, had no neither parameters nor private variables.
Re:Nice (Score:2, Insightful)
That's exactly what makes it a great learning language. Write a medium-sized BASIC program and you learn why exactly more complex control structures and subroutines are desirable. It's one thing to talk about spaghetti code, it's another to have to try to untangle it.
(A GOSUB is a type of procedure, BTW, and BASIC also has the
Re:Nice (Score:1)
Re:Nice (Score:2)
Each class of things (files, being the most horrid example) has its own syntax. Lists and other data structures are very weird to use.
But it does have its moments.
RealBasic - visual basic that doesn't suck (Score:4, Insightful)
So, it's not "free" in any meaning of the word, and is actually kinda expensive. But falls into the "if your time has any value" thing really quickly, especially if you want to produce something where performance is no biggie but getting a cross platform application bashed together for low cost is.
Dave
Re:RealBasic - visual basic that doesn't suck (Score:5, Informative)
Between the 100% free(beer)ness of
(I looked at the prices for RealBasic - yikes! I'll deal with the sucky bits for that price -- of course, considerably cheaper than VS.NET, but I'm talking personal use here...)
Re:RealBasic - visual basic that doesn't suck (Score:2)
Re:RealBasic - visual basic that doesn't suck (Score:2)
Ok, forget it, I tried to be coherent... I'm going back to coding... Now what language am I using again?
What are you Smoking? (Score:2)
Learn Python instead. (Score:5, Informative)
Basic might be good for beginning programmers to get a brief overview of how to code, but before long I would expect them to move onto a better, more capable language before it gives them bad habbits and slows them down. C is a complex language, but Python is exactly right for learners - it's complicated and hugely capable if you want it to be, but is quite capable of small projects and is forgiving for learners.
* Python [python.org] - A modern, neet-o general purpose language.
* Psyco [sourceforge.net] - Runtime compiler.
* Py2Exe [python.net] - Converts Python scripts to Windows executables.
* Pythonwin [python.org] - Windows extensions (and an excellent code editor).
(I want to recommend learning assembler for beginners, since you'll understand exactly what's going on, but almost nobody cares about it these days.. sigh..)
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:2)
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:2, Funny)
20 ED FD
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:1)
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe you're so grumpy because some people can actually make money programming in VB? Modern commercial development is hugely VB based. If you said modern ACADEMIC development, I might have had *some* respect for everything else you said. VB up to V6 is a kludgy, clumsy language. VB.NET is considerably different -- it had to be to survive.
I'd still vote for Java for a first language. You actually learn things you will use in later development.
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:1)
Like you suggested, Visual Basic is now essentially preprocessed C#. I'd say that it's more accurate to say C# is Java than to say Visual Basic is BASIC.
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:2)
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:1)
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:2)
And you need pointers with python? One reason it's an easy language is you don't need them, nor do you need malloc and suchlike. Not that Basic's lack of pointers makes it a great language, far from it: it lacks too much else, it looks like assembly language without the power of assembly language...
Re:Learn Python instead. (Score:2)
I would suggest that you use wxPython [wxpython.org] instead of Pythonwin though. Apps written with wxPython look like native Windows applications, but have the added advantage of being compatible with other operating systems too.
Educate thyself! (Score:2)
I can't even begin to name the tons of business applications that have been developed with some dialect of BASIC - from PICK Basic to Business Basic to QuickBasic to VB - there have been many, many successful, fast, and very capable business applications built using this language.
All it is is a syntax: what is the difference if it is "FOR...NEXT" or "for (...){}"?
Re:Educate thyself! (Score:2)
As far as Python and your loop example - no, that doesn't look cryptic to me at all, nor does it to a lot of b
Whom the gods would destroy (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously is there any use for this except as a teaching tool ? If thats the only use isn't it an incredibly bad idea ?
There are plenty of great languages that can be learned quickly, teach fundamental computer science painlessly and are free. PERL, PYTHON, LOGO, if you r'e anal all the Pascal variants. These not only serve the purpose of allowing programs to be written but they painlessly impart good technique.
Re:Whom the gods would destroy (Score:2)
That aside, I agree with you. Especially about Python (it's my favorite).
TTFN
Re:Whom the gods would destroy (Score:1)
Re:Whom the gods would destroy (Score:2)
PS: c
Re:Whom the gods would destroy (Score:2)
It was a bit of a shame really, albeit inspiring me to program better in the first place.
Re:Whom the gods would destroy (Score:1)
Also, PASCAL is also a learning-only language... I think C or C++ in high school is a relatively recent development. Most of the guys I went to college with had the same story as me... first BASIC (which most of us had already played with on our Atari 400s or whatever), then PASCAL (which we all hated).
Never messed with Python, but I agree that it would probably be better to throw students right in the deep end and get them coding in C. The biggest reason being to teach
Finally... what now? (Score:1)
Re:Whom the gods would destroy (Score:3, Insightful)
The trouble with teaching C first is that there are many things about C which are not good for newbies. For example, how long would it take for you to explain the following C program to a person who knew nothing about programming?
Now, how long would it take to explain the
designed as a teaching language (Score:2, Funny)
Computer Programming for Everybody (Score:2)
I know that BASIC does not appeal to the Slashdot crowd, but what about those people who have never programmed before? If this program helps a few people write a small program or two on their own, I think it is a great deal.
Personally, I am excited by the Computer Programming for Everybody (CP4E) [python.org] proposal that Guido van Rossum proposed a while back. I think everybody in the modern, west
Re:Computer Programming for Everybody (Score:1)
I know nothing is optimal, but consider leaving out the complicated parts of C++, or even javascript and maybe php or Java, or really a subset of C++ with Classes that make the GUI stuff easy.
Re:Computer Programming for Everybody (Score:2)
A really free version of Liberty BASIC (Score:1)
I found a really free GNU version of Liberty basic [sourceforge.net] through a simple search through google.... just FYI.