5 ms·

> Scroll down to download free copies of the Usborne 1980s computer books. NB these programs don't work on modern computers. This is sad to read when there are

by speps 8y ago

> Scroll down to download free copies of the Usborne 1980s computer books. NB these programs don't work on modern computers. This is sad to read when there are ways to make them run on modern computers! You'd still have to type the listings though (unless someone OCR'd them all...).

bencollier49 8y ago
They'll work at the command prompt on a Raspberry Pi running RISC OS Pico!
- musicale 8y ago
  s/NB these programs don't work on modern computers/NB these programs work well with BBC BASIC on a modern Raspberry Pi computer running RISC OS!/
simonh 8y ago
I used to have a copy of the Space Games book, I picked it up at a jumble sale as a student so it was a bit after my days hacking BASIC at home. It was still a fun read, I'll grab a copy when I get home. As has been mentioned there are emulators for many early BASICs, but honestly the basic algorithms and concepts should be pretty easy to apply in something more modern, like Python or VB.NET my kids are learning at school.
peterburkimsher 8y ago
Would you like me to OCR them all? Where should I upload the TXT versions?
npongratz 8y ago
Indeed. For anyone interested, PC-BASIC might scratch the BASIC-on-modern-hardware itch: http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ From the docs [0]: "PC-BASIC is a free, cross-platform interpreter for GW-BASIC, Advanced BASIC (BASICA), PCjr Cartridge Basic and Tandy 1000 GWBASIC. It interprets these BASIC dialects with a high degree of accuracy, aiming for bug-for-bug compatibility. PC-BASIC emulates the most common video and audio hardware on which these BASICs used to run. PC-BASIC runs plain-text, tokenised and protected .BAS files...." [0] http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/doc/2.0/ http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/doc/2.0/
- Moru 8y ago
  Or you could try GLBasic.com, a BASIC dialect that is cross platform compileable and fast. Has 3D capabilities too.
  - WalterGR 8y ago
    Is it compatible with the code in the books that we’re talking about?
twic 8y ago
The book on Programming Tricks and Skills is about development process and software architecture as well as language-specific stuff, and the advice in that holds up pretty well today!
musicale 8y ago
These books look like a great piece of computing history as well as something that would be fun to try out today. Seems like it would be easy to link to web pages with emulators for the older systems (or perhaps a simple BASIC emulator) in javascript. Better yet, they could host emulators themselves along with instructions on how to use them with the books! (They could also collaborate with the Internet Archive, which has an extensive historical computing and emulation collection.)
- kwhitefoot 8y ago
  A very little bit of poking around on the web turned up PC Basic at https://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ https://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ which should be usable for a lot of the simple exercises. At least this one from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUzdWckVpSUlIb0E/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUzdWckVpSUlIb0E...: LIST 10 LET A$="***" 20 FOR J = 1 TO 7 30 PRINT TAB(J);A$ 40 NEXT J 50 FOR K=1 TO 3 60 PRINT TAB(J+1);A$ 70 NEXT K 80 FOR L = 7 TO 1 STEP -1 90 PRINT TAB(L);A$ 100 NEXT L Ok works perfectly. I rather like this way of working, define a bit of program, try it out, refine it, try again without having to either compile or switch context from editor to command line. Edit: formatting.

by speps 8y ago

bencollier49 8y ago

They'll work at the command prompt on a Raspberry Pi running RISC OS Pico!

musicale 8y ago
s/NB these programs don't work on modern computers/NB these programs work well with BBC BASIC on a modern Raspberry Pi computer running RISC OS!/

simonh 8y ago

I used to have a copy of the Space Games book, I picked it up at a jumble sale as a student so it was a bit after my days hacking BASIC at home. It was still a fun read, I'll grab a copy when I get home. As has been mentioned there are emulators for many early BASICs, but honestly the basic algorithms and concepts should be pretty easy to apply in something more modern, like Python or VB.NET my kids are learning at school.

peterburkimsher 8y ago

Would you like me to OCR them all? Where should I upload the TXT versions?

npongratz 8y ago

Indeed. For anyone interested, PC-BASIC might scratch the BASIC-on-modern-hardware itch: http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ From the docs [0]: "PC-BASIC is a free, cross-platform interpreter for GW-BASIC, Advanced BASIC (BASICA), PCjr Cartridge Basic and Tandy 1000 GWBASIC. It interprets these BASIC dialects with a high degree of accuracy, aiming for bug-for-bug compatibility. PC-BASIC emulates the most common video and audio hardware on which these BASICs used to run. PC-BASIC runs plain-text, tokenised and protected .BAS files...." [0] http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/doc/2.0/ http://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/doc/2.0/

Moru 8y ago
Or you could try GLBasic.com, a BASIC dialect that is cross platform compileable and fast. Has 3D capabilities too.
- WalterGR 8y ago
  Is it compatible with the code in the books that we’re talking about?

twic 8y ago

The book on Programming Tricks and Skills is about development process and software architecture as well as language-specific stuff, and the advice in that holds up pretty well today!

musicale 8y ago

These books look like a great piece of computing history as well as something that would be fun to try out today. Seems like it would be easy to link to web pages with emulators for the older systems (or perhaps a simple BASIC emulator) in javascript. Better yet, they could host emulators themselves along with instructions on how to use them with the books! (They could also collaborate with the Internet Archive, which has an extensive historical computing and emulation collection.)

kwhitefoot 8y ago
A very little bit of poking around on the web turned up PC Basic at https://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ https://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/ which should be usable for a lot of the simple exercises. At least this one from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUzdWckVpSUlIb0E/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUzdWckVpSUlIb0E...: LIST 10 LET A$="***" 20 FOR J = 1 TO 7 30 PRINT TAB(J);A$ 40 NEXT J 50 FOR K=1 TO 3 60 PRINT TAB(J+1);A$ 70 NEXT K 80 FOR L = 7 TO 1 STEP -1 90 PRINT TAB(L);A$ 100 NEXT L Ok works perfectly. I rather like this way of working, define a bit of program, try it out, refine it, try again without having to either compile or switch context from editor to command line. Edit: formatting.