does anyone know qbasic?

[stickybytes]

^^. im currently learning this at school. How does the difficulty, limitations, structure compare with visual basic (something i eventually want to move on to).

 

[compudog]

From what I can see, Qbasic is very simplistic and doesn't compare to Visual Basic other than a similarity in name. QBasic can only run in a DOS environment. It isn't likely to have access to any hardware without specific PC support. I suppose the instructor is teaching Qbasic as an introduction to programming concepts and structure.

QBasic

100 CLS
110 Print "This is a sample Program";
120 REM This is a program comment or REMark
130 Input "Please type your name.>";NAME$
140 Print
150 print
160 Print "Hello";NAME$; "Welcome to this sample program"
170 print
180 print
190 Input "Press any key to continue;";N
200 GOTO 100
210 END

With Visual Basic, you are programming within an application under Windows. VB uses projects and forms for developing applications that will run on the Windows platform.

Both are easy to learn.

Good luck!

 

[Smilin]

Ouch.

Qbasic or nearly any other line-numbered language (fortran, yuck). is going to teach you very poor programming practices.

At best it will teach you the basics of top-down design if your teacher jumps quickly into subroutines (GOSUB in qbasic).

At worst it will teach you very poor habits, make learning other languages MUCH more difficult and you'll have no concept of object oriented design.

I'm really stunned that your teacher would take you there. I first learned to program on (line numbered) basic and it made my transition to other languages very painful. If I had a chance to do it all over I would have deliberately skipped it!! The idea is to teach you concepts so you can move on smoothly. Qbasic will teach you loops and decisions pretty well, but those are the simplest concepts. The more important concepts like functions will be very alien to you. I'm not even sure qbasic has a way to pass-by-reference versus pass-by-value. This is a critical concept!

realmode programming (dos-based) is very simple and easy on the beginner. C, Pascal, or even quickbasic (if they still make it) would be the best way to start. After that, move on to something object oriented, Windows based and event driven like VB (barely object oriented - but an easy intro). Then move to C++ or Java which are heavily object oriented.

I wish I could have a discussion with your teacher for you.

 

[Smilin]

more

If you are already in the class pay close attention to subroutines if he/she teaches them. Pay close attention to functions if he/she teaches them. Try to never ever use a goto statement. Ever. Pretend your keyboard can't even type it. Find another way around.

 

[AFB]

I still think Java's strucure is very benifical to people learning to program. Yes, it is pretty difficut to go from zero to hello world, but the language kind of forces you to stick with a strucure and prevents bad things like goto's. Ohh well, you aren't learning Java, you are learning QBasic. You might want to look here or pick up an O'Reilly book.

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: Smilin

more

If you are already in the class pay close attention to subroutines if he/she teaches them. Pay close attention to functions if he/she teaches them. Try to never ever use a goto statement. Ever. Pretend your keyboard can't even type it. Find another way around.

Amen brother. Goto's are :evil:

 

[DWW]

If you can do anything to avoid it, don't learn QBASIC

It is worthless in every direction (and it was the first language I learned). Taught me so many bad habits.

Learn C first if you can. It is really simple and minimal language (but powerful). After C, do C++ then Java then whatever language is easy.

IMO learning Java first is a bad idea and too intimidating to anyone without language experience.

Avoid QBASIC at every cost though.

 

[stickybytes]

All i can say is wow. Im supriused at how many of you seem to not like the idea of learning qbasic as a beginners language. Our high school ciriculum mandates that all sophmores take qbasic first then you can advance onto c++ and cisco if you choose to. I don't know how cisco mixes in here but it counts as a college credit so im taking it.

I just finished two semesters of qbasic and now i done with it. We started off learning how to print onto screen, then input statements. From there we learned the structure of a IF block, nested IF, ELSEIF. We were taught how to use conditions (AND, OR, <, >, >=, etc). Doesn't this help beginners as im pretty sure more advanced languages still make use of conditions correct?

Also did a lot on the structures of loops. Repeating a block of statements, using counters to terminate the loop(count=count+1) and use of loops to create moving graphics (add one to x each time the loop executes to make it go from left to right). And yes, goto was strictly prohibited in our programs and projects. Our teacher specifically told us that any goto statement and be done with a loop and took off points if you used it.

Mixed in along the way, we were taught how to use READ DATA, color functions, graphic modes.

 

[DWW]

Originally posted by: stickybytes
All i can say is wow. Im supriused at how many of you seem to not like the idea of learning qbasic as a beginners language. Our high school ciriculum mandates that all sophmores take qbasic first then you can advance onto c++ and cisco if you choose to. I don't know how cisco mixes in here but it counts as a college credit so im taking it.

I just finished two semesters of qbasic and now i done with it. We started off learning how to print onto screen, then input statements. From there we learned the structure of a IF block, nested IF, ELSEIF. We were taught how to use conditions (AND, OR, <, >, >=, etc). Doesn't this help beginners as im pretty sure more advanced languages still make use of conditions correct?

Also did a lot on the structures of loops. Repeating a block of statements, using counters to terminate the loop(count=count+1) and use of loops to create moving graphics (add one to x each time the loop executes to make it go from left to right). And yes, goto was strictly prohibited in our programs and projects. Our teacher specifically told us that any goto statement and be done with a loop and took off points if you used it.

Mixed in along the way, we were taught how to use READ DATA, color functions, graphic modes.

Well even if you avoid lots of bad habits, it is still a better idea to learn C first IMO because transition to C++ and then Java is easy due to similar language structure (well...not as much for Java). QBASIC and VB .NET are nothing alike so you can't really "upgrade" from QBASIC unless starting over.

I think QBASIC is a good introduction in so far as that it teaches you conditions, control etc.

 

[Smilin]

I wish Pascal was more popular. It was designed soley as a learning language. It has a form very similar to C but it is very strict in it's rules. It teaches great programming habbits. C is a good one but it can get a bit loose and allow poor programming ..inline declarations? Ouch. In the absence of Pascal I would probably still pick C as a first language.

Whoever mandates QBasic as a first language is a tard. Also, how do they manage to stretch that out to two semesters?

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: Smilin
I wish Pascal was more popular. It was designed soley as a learning language. It has a form very similar to C but it is very strict in it's rules. It teaches great programming habbits. C is a good one but it can get a bit loose and allow poor programming ..inline declarations? Ouch. In the absence of Pascal I would probably still pick C as a first language.

Whoever mandates QBasic as a first language is a tard. Also, how do they manage to stretch that out to two semesters?

I have wondered this too. My school teaches baby Java for the frst year. I can't figure out what they teach if they just get into arrays in the second year ????

 

[Drakkon]

I remeber my fresh year like the only class these two hardcore gang members would come to was the computer class and they developed, all be it pretty sick, a cop killer game all in basic, and it was done well, really well, with two player action and smooth graphics, all on a 286 machine. Everyone was pretty amazed. Never saw those guys again after fresh year though....

The progression i did back in HS (all of 8 years ago now) was basic, qbasic, pascal, C/C++, JAVA

QBasic seemed like a natural progression then into pascal to me actually, i mean in basic i learned about all the decision and looping statements and then in pascal really learned how to apply them to ideas and not just simpel little programs. I think the QB initial intro to programming is a great method to start with. Its all a lot of kids can handle at the start i think. I mean you present someone with a massive complicated IDE like VB and its going to blow their mind, QB is so stripped down and simple that its easy for people to get excited about. Although once you finish with QB you've got the basic idea down, and are ready to move up, and i think VB or VC# is the next logical step nowadays.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

I concur greatly with the QBasic = Suck sentiment.

Java is free and will get you a lot further along in the basics than QB. Problem is, if the teacher doesn't know it, you won't get taught it.

Even OOT would be a ton better.

- M4H

 

[biostud]

Qbasic is t3h suxxors, no future whatsoever. As far as I remember all programs needs to be launched from inside qbasic.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
I remeber my fresh year like the only class these two hardcore gang members would come to was the computer class and they developed, all be it pretty sick, a cop killer game all in basic, and it was done well, really well, with two player action and smooth graphics, all on a 286 machine. Everyone was pretty amazed. Never saw those guys again after fresh year though....

The progression i did back in HS (all of 8 years ago now) was basic, qbasic, pascal, C/C++, JAVA

QBasic seemed like a natural progression then into pascal to me actually, i mean in basic i learned about all the decision and looping statements and then in pascal really learned how to apply them to ideas and not just simpel little programs. I think the QB initial intro to programming is a great method to start with. Its all a lot of kids can handle at the start i think. I mean you present someone with a massive complicated IDE like VB and its going to blow their mind, QB is so stripped down and simple that its easy for people to get excited about. Although once you finish with QB you've got the basic idea down, and are ready to move up, and i think VB or VC# is the next logical step nowadays.

I think you (or me) are confusing qbasic with quick basic. Qbasic is line number based, while quick basic is purely procedure based. Quick basic is an awesome learning language. Qbasic is horrible.

 

[talyn00]

I haven't used BASIC or QBASIC since Jr. High School. I actually thought VB was easier and alot more fun to learn than QBASIC. If you really want to learn programming you should probably find a book on C, then work your way up to Java, C++, and C#

 

[amdskip]

I just opened up my racing qbasic game I made back in high school. We had a slight intro to C and now at school we are doing java.

 

[mysticfm]

Originally posted by: stickybytes
All i can say is wow. Im supriused at how many of you seem to not like the idea of learning qbasic as a beginners language.

Any language with line numbers is inherently evil.

... we learned the structure of a IF block, nested IF, ELSEIF. We were taught how to use conditions (AND, OR, <, >, >=, etc). Doesn't this help beginners as im pretty sure more advanced languages still make use of conditions correct? Also did a lot on the structures of loops. Repeating a block of statements, using counters to terminate the loop(count=count+1) and use of loops to create moving graphics (add one to x each time the loop executes to make it go from left to right).

Yes, learning these elements will not be entirely wasted when you move on to better, more structured programming languages. Just don't be surprised when the structures of even these things are a little different in a real language as compared to qbasic.

And yes, goto was strictly prohibited in our programs and projects. Our teacher specifically told us that any goto statement and be done with a loop and took off points if you used it.

Well, I can understand what he was getting at (avoiding the once-common use of a couple of GOTO statements and a conditional to implement a Do-While looping structure), but the statement that "ANY GOTO can (sp?) be done with a LOOP" isn't quite right. And that's one of the problems that I see with starting with an unstructured language like qbasic. It's one thing to say "avoid GOTOs", but qbasic doesn't give you the structured capabilities that would lead you to naturally not use GOTOs in any of the circumstances where you might otherwise be tempted. In other words, you may be able to avoid using GOTOs with qbasic, but managing to do so still doesn't make it a good language in which to learn the sound program design and habits that never leave you wanting to use a GOTO.

I don't think C makes for a good starting language either, as it's a little too easy to hurt yourself in it ... like taking driver education classes in a Porsche. To invert a common programming joke: "Weak typing is for the strong-minded."

If I were teaching a starting programming class, I'd probably choose Visual Basic as the first language, and just avoid using the event driven elements of Windows development until later on in the course when the basics are down.

 

[kmmatney]

QBasic was the first language I learned, and then I went straight into Visual Basic and Visual basic for DOS. The experience served me well. I'm a scientist/engineer by education, but my job involves 50% programming (writing scientific software for tools used in wafer fabs), and I became a Microsoft Certified Professional in VB. I liked Qbasic well enough, but I dropped it like a rock when I first laid my eyes on Visual Basic. If you can use Visual Basic instead of QBasic, then I would recommend that. At least Visual Basic has a more direct path to more modern languages like VB.Net and C#. I'm still using VB 6.0.

Edit: To answer your question, a lot of the syntax in QBasic is very similar to Visual Basic. In fact, its usually very easy to port code from QBasic to VB. So if you learn Qbasic, the transition to VB will be easy.

 

[Viol8tor]

return bump 4 U!

 

[stickybytes]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Whoever mandates QBasic as a first language is a tard. Also, how do they manage to stretch that out to two semesters?

The first semester was mostly about simple if statements and input statements. The second semester was more in-depth if statements (ie nested if, elseif) and the introduction of loops (do while, do until, for next) and colors. Also the random function, colors, and graphics. Come to think of it, the first semester was a waste of time because i learned so little.