4 ms·

I'm sad that platforms like Windows (or more importantly phones, iOS and Android) don't come with something similar to QBasic. If you didn't grow up with it it

I'm sad that platforms like Windows (or more importantly phones, iOS and Android) don't come with something similar to QBasic. If you didn't grow up with it it's hard to realize just how magical it was to turn on your family's brand new 486 and instantly have qbasic.exe installed and available from the get go. Even better, when you started it the program had an extensive help system that popped up and walked you through the basics. It even had a full reference of all the syntax, etc.--you didn't have to go hunting around on the internet to learn how to use it (because no one had access to the internet!). It was all right there and ready to go, just waiting for you to stumble on it. I wish every kid with a phone, tablet or computer today had a similar experience and tools available, not buried in app stores and downloads.

breckenedge 4y ago
I know. Pythonista gets really close to that experience on an iPhone, but yea it’s not included in the OS.
tenebrisalietum 4y ago
At least basic HTML and Javascript can be spun up with little more than a text editor and a modern browser. Also all the old platforms either do or soon will live on forever in Javascript/WASM based emulators.
whartung 4y ago
I'm just going to disagree. Simply, with QBasic specifically, you got...QBasic. Yea, it came with a nice help system, but that help system was was a user guide and reference manual. It didn't teach you how to program. It just showed what the arguments to PRINT were. Useful, as a reference. Outside of the TRS-80, which had a fairly large BASIC tutorial manual, the early 8-Bits had rather poor BASIC documentation. They were combined BASIC reference and user manuals, and not spectacular at either. And they certainly weren't robust computer programming tutorials by any stretch. The simple point being is that while, yes, early computers came with BASIC, they weren't really set up for someone to actually learn how to program a computer. Anyone wanting to program the computer would need to find another book (or magazine) to learn programming. Even if that book were 101 BASIC Computer Games (which is an excellent mechanic, I learned a lot typing in BASIC programs). Every computer today comes with a web browser, a web browser that can take them to any of a long list of sites where they can start coding immediately -- whether in Javascript, or even many other languages. If anything, of course, the problem is that the web is "too big", the menu "too large" and an unguided novice can get lost in vast array of choices. I actually pity some poor soul typing "learn javascript" into Google alone. But, truth is, today, there are even few of those. Few are learning this stuff in a vacuum today. The modern web is hardly a barrier to someone interested in programming today. The available resources are endless. QBasic was a wonderful tool. It was beautiful and useful. A very elegant early IDE. Head and shoulders above GWBASIC/BASICA. But, still, stand alone it was incomplete.
- mattl 4y ago
  > early 8-Bits had rather poor BASIC documentation Maybe in the US where the TRS-80 was sold but in Europe we had really good manuals with things like the Amstrad CPC.
- mrandish 4y ago
  Yep, I taught myself to program on a TRS-80 Color Computer in the early 1980s using only the included manuals for Extended Color BASIC. Then I taught myself 6809 assembler with Radio Shack's EdtAsm+ ROM cartridge and included manual plus a 6809 quick reference card I got free from Motorola. That led to a lifelong successful career as a programmer and software entrepreneur with no formal schooling in programming, tech or business. In theory, all the info for free on the web should make it even easier to self-teach and bootstrap your way into the industry but I'm not sure it does in practice. Maybe only having one available path to self-instruct was somehow more effective? Thanks Radio Shack!
guestbest 4y ago
That was probably because it was and always be associated with Bill Gates. Not all computers included an interpreter that was fully documented. Every computer since Netscape included JavaScript has had some kind of scripting language, but you’re a hundred percent correct on the documentation
badsectoracula 4y ago
Windows comes with VBScript, all you have to do is make a text file with the .vbs extension and double click it. It contains some very basic functions for input and output (query boxes and message boxes). ~15 years ago i wrote an intro to programming article in a magazine that used that, it is something that has been on Windows PCs since Windows 98. Nowadays there is also Powershell which can use the entirety of .NET and of course one can make an .html file and open it in a browser in pretty much any OS.
- kittiepryde 4y ago
  I think it would need to present at least a little bit more of the qbasic experience. A simple editor, but it still looks different from notepad, and built-in documentation, and immediate access to samples and games. Something that if found, the average 10 year old would find the sample games in about a minute of clicking around. Gorillas and snake is a must.

breckenedge 4y ago

I know. Pythonista gets really close to that experience on an iPhone, but yea it’s not included in the OS.

tenebrisalietum 4y ago

At least basic HTML and Javascript can be spun up with little more than a text editor and a modern browser. Also all the old platforms either do or soon will live on forever in Javascript/WASM based emulators.

whartung 4y ago

I'm just going to disagree. Simply, with QBasic specifically, you got...QBasic. Yea, it came with a nice help system, but that help system was was a user guide and reference manual. It didn't teach you how to program. It just showed what the arguments to PRINT were. Useful, as a reference. Outside of the TRS-80, which had a fairly large BASIC tutorial manual, the early 8-Bits had rather poor BASIC documentation. They were combined BASIC reference and user manuals, and not spectacular at either. And they certainly weren't robust computer programming tutorials by any stretch. The simple point being is that while, yes, early computers came with BASIC, they weren't really set up for someone to actually learn how to program a computer. Anyone wanting to program the computer would need to find another book (or magazine) to learn programming. Even if that book were 101 BASIC Computer Games (which is an excellent mechanic, I learned a lot typing in BASIC programs). Every computer today comes with a web browser, a web browser that can take them to any of a long list of sites where they can start coding immediately -- whether in Javascript, or even many other languages. If anything, of course, the problem is that the web is "too big", the menu "too large" and an unguided novice can get lost in vast array of choices. I actually pity some poor soul typing "learn javascript" into Google alone. But, truth is, today, there are even few of those. Few are learning this stuff in a vacuum today. The modern web is hardly a barrier to someone interested in programming today. The available resources are endless. QBasic was a wonderful tool. It was beautiful and useful. A very elegant early IDE. Head and shoulders above GWBASIC/BASICA. But, still, stand alone it was incomplete.

mattl 4y ago
> early 8-Bits had rather poor BASIC documentation Maybe in the US where the TRS-80 was sold but in Europe we had really good manuals with things like the Amstrad CPC.
mrandish 4y ago
Yep, I taught myself to program on a TRS-80 Color Computer in the early 1980s using only the included manuals for Extended Color BASIC. Then I taught myself 6809 assembler with Radio Shack's EdtAsm+ ROM cartridge and included manual plus a 6809 quick reference card I got free from Motorola. That led to a lifelong successful career as a programmer and software entrepreneur with no formal schooling in programming, tech or business. In theory, all the info for free on the web should make it even easier to self-teach and bootstrap your way into the industry but I'm not sure it does in practice. Maybe only having one available path to self-instruct was somehow more effective? Thanks Radio Shack!

guestbest 4y ago

That was probably because it was and always be associated with Bill Gates. Not all computers included an interpreter that was fully documented. Every computer since Netscape included JavaScript has had some kind of scripting language, but you’re a hundred percent correct on the documentation

badsectoracula 4y ago

Windows comes with VBScript, all you have to do is make a text file with the .vbs extension and double click it. It contains some very basic functions for input and output (query boxes and message boxes). ~15 years ago i wrote an intro to programming article in a magazine that used that, it is something that has been on Windows PCs since Windows 98. Nowadays there is also Powershell which can use the entirety of .NET and of course one can make an .html file and open it in a browser in pretty much any OS.

kittiepryde 4y ago
I think it would need to present at least a little bit more of the qbasic experience. A simple editor, but it still looks different from notepad, and built-in documentation, and immediate access to samples and games. Something that if found, the average 10 year old would find the sample games in about a minute of clicking around. Gorillas and snake is a must.