BBS: Inland Empire Archive
Date: 03-21-93 (12:53) Number: 202
From: QUINN TYLER JACKSON Refer#: NONE
To: ALL Recvd: NO
Subj: Unofficial FAQ 2.0 1/ Conf: (2) Quik_Bas
QUIK_BAS FAQ2.0
****************************************************************
* *
* "Ask Doctor JackMack" *
* The JackMack List of Frequently Asked Questions with *
* Some Simple Public Domain Solutions *
* *
****************************************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
q1.0 The BASICS of BASIC
q2.0 Commonly Requested Routines
s1.0 FINPUT.BAS -- restricted INPUT routine
s2.0 COMLINE.BAS -- parses command line
NOTE: Neither Quinn Tyler Jackson nor his company, JackMack
Consulting & Development accepts responsibility for the soundness
of the following advice. If your computer is not feeling well,
or your programming skills seem pained, consult your
manuals before attempting any of these exercises.....
Q1.0 The BASICS of BASIC:
Q1.1 What is the difference between GWBASIC, BASICA, QBASIC, QBI,
QuickBASIC, PDS, QBX, VBDOS, ZBASIC, TSRBASIC, Turbo BASIC,
and Power BASIC?
A.1.1 Over the years since those first days in 1964 at that now famous
university, there have been many versions of BASIC. (Beginner's
All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) Each version has
expanded upon the abilities of the previous versions, while
trying to overcome some of the limitations that earned earlier
BASICs the then-deserved title of "Beginner's" programming
language. In the days of yesteryear, BASIC was mostly an
interpreted language, as opposed to a compiled language, and
was run on a large university mainframe computer, with each
programmer being given only a noisy teletype like terminal that
fought for its time with the mainframe. Terminals were noisy and
things were slow in this world. That language was truly BASIC.
As things progressed, however, certain parties made board room
decisions that put BASIC into the ROM of every home enthusiast
who could afford a personal computer with the then woppingly huge
64k of RAM. IBM's decision to make BASIC a part of the ROM of
its early personal computers brought BASIC into the livingroom
and out of the university labs. Now that it was in the enthusiasts'
living rooms, however, computer users began to demand more from
their BASIC than the Dartmouth type BASIC was giving them. And so,
slightly more powerful features were added to each new release of
BASIC dialects, until you could actually use variable names that
made some kind of sense. (Instead of a simple LET A=10, one could
say Apples=10. What improvement!)
Time passed, and GW-BASIC and its look-alikes were born. Such
features as definable functions were added to the list of
improvements, and many BASIC programmers were starting to feel
as if the Beginner's language was starting to lose its beginners
edge. Sure, variables were still global to the whole program, but
things were looking up! After all, it wasn't just anyone who
could turn out spaghetti code to solve the mortgage payment
schedule! Programming in BASIC was on its way with the introduction
of GW-BASIC and BASICA.
Then, in keeping with progress, other innovations were added to the
BASIC family that seem so natural now, but without which modern
BASIC programming would be a real drag. The concept of local
variable scope leapt out of the C labratories and into the BASIC
interpreters and compilers. Things were really looking up with
local variables, since they made possible in BASIC somethere
theretowith unheard of: recursion. With recursion came some
real innovation in BASIC programming, let me tell you! Some
algorithms are just better suited to recursive programming style
than they are to the old linear method.
Microsoft's BASIC series of compilers, in unison with the stepped
down QuickBASIC versions that inevitably followed as a marketing
plan, brought to BASIC something no serious programmer would
ever give up. Local variables are just too nice to overlook,
as are definable FUNCTIONs, SUB programs, and a handfull of other
features that QuickBASIC and compiled BASIC introduced. And
of course, through all this, there was competition! Enter
Turbo BASIC, now abandoned by Borland, and a few others in the
shareware field that just didn't quite win the support that
Microsoft's BASICs enjoyed. ASIC, TSRBASIC, and company are
oddities to most, and at best, exercises in imitation that
didn't quite make it.
Meanwhile, in the Window's world, everyone was programming either
in C, or using some code engine that cost them a fortune. Along
came VBWIN, which introduced a whole new concept to BASIC, visual
and event oriented programming. This carried over eventually to
DOS, and so were born VBDOS and VBDOS Professional, the replacements
of QuickBASIC 4.5 and BASIC Professional Development System 7.1.
Now, some confusion always existed about just what PDS meant.
Actually, PDS means nothing by itself. There are professional
development systems in Microsoft's other programming languages, so
just a simple PDS could mean anything from MASM 6.1 PDS or
whatever. PDS in BASIC circles, however, is always used to
refer to the more full-featured BASIC compiler system for
professional programmers.
Therefore, when Microsoft decided to abandon its non-visually
and event oriented lines of BASIC, it introduced two versions
of VBDOS. One to replace QuickBASIC 4.5, which they called
VBDOS Standard. The other to replace BASIC PDS 7.1, which they
called VBDOS Professional. It should be noted, however, that
even VBDOS Standard adopted many features thereto unknown to
QuickBASIC 4.5. Such features as arrays in TYPE structures and
REDIM PRESERVE had thereto been reserved for professionals, I
suppose. Now, amateur enthusiasts were allowed to, through
the introduction of extended features, sometimes called PDS
EXTENSIONS, do such things as redimension arrays without losing
their previous contents. True extensions were added to BASIC
as well, such as OPTION EXPLICIT, which is used as a tool to
speedier debugging, sinces it forces the programmer to declare
all variables in a way only a C programmer would truly love to
hate. And of course, the VBDOS pair adopted the event oriented
style of its first cousin 3.1 times removed: Visual BASIC for
Microsoft Windows<tm>.
Meanwhile, another contender reared its head: Power BASIC. With
its TSR capabilities and a few other nice features, some feel
that it is real competition for the Microsoft line of BASICs.
And all the while, DOS 5.0 users wonder what that QBASIC thingy
is they got with their upgrade. Well, that is a stepped down
version of QuickBASIC, missing a few very important features,
but it's a good place for someone learning BASIC for the first
time to start, since it was free with DOS 5.0, and since, as
a subset of VBDOS and QuickBASIC, one can always step up the
ladder without changing one's programming habbits too much.
QBI, a similar release, came with the book _Learn BASIC Now!_
and probably is a waste of money for anyone with DOS 5.0, unless
the book is worth the money to you.
Q1.2 So now I know that little bit of history, Quinn, thanks. What is
a FUNCTION and SUB, the things that you just mentioned? I'm a
GW-BASIC programmer, and haven't heard of these things before.
>>> Continued to next message
* OLX 2.1 TD * QUIK_BAS FAQ 2.0
--- Maximus/2 2.01wb
* Origin: The Nibble's Roost, Richmond BC Canada 604-244-8009 (1:153/918)
