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I keep QBasic installed on DOSBox on every machine I own just to know it’s there. Structured programming, the immediate window, an interactive debugger, built-i

by thom 4y ago

I keep QBasic installed on DOSBox on every machine I own just to know it’s there. Structured programming, the immediate window, an interactive debugger, built-in help, it all combined into a fantastically safe and productive environment for someone starting out. It feels like there isn’t a good equivalent today, kids have to work in weird stuff like Scratch or piece together docs, YouTube videos, editors and compilers/runtimes in a way that distracts from the essence of learning code. I’ve played with Gambas with my son and that’s a nice Visual Basic-like integrated environment. There are some nice apps that just give you a Python window and a run button but aren’t as slick overall as QBasic. We’ll probably end up diving all the way into Roblox studio because that’s very motivating at least, if very complex for a beginner. Maybe Swift playgrounds is the right approach, I’d love to hear what others find.

zozbot234 4y ago
The FreePascal project maintains a clone of the Turbo Pascal text-mode IDE that will run and interoperate w/ modern environments. But there isn't much of an equivalent even for C/C++, let alone BASIC, or other modern languages for that matter. Vim and Emacs just don't support the same kind of novice-friendly DX.
- badsectoracula 4y ago
  QB64 is almost a faithful recreation of QBasic with a bunch of extensions, though i'm not sure if it has a QBasic-like "live" editing feature (where you can pause the program while it is running, run functions or modify the code and then continue from there).
  - zozbot234 4y ago
    Just found out about it. Apparently it transpiles the BASIC code into C++, which sounds a bit hacky TBH, given how crazy the semantics of C++ can be. They do have an impressive graphical recreation of the old text-mode IDE.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Yes there is, C++ Builder. Which everyone else failed to reproduce to this day.

by thom 4y ago

zozbot234 4y ago

The FreePascal project maintains a clone of the Turbo Pascal text-mode IDE that will run and interoperate w/ modern environments. But there isn't much of an equivalent even for C/C++, let alone BASIC, or other modern languages for that matter. Vim and Emacs just don't support the same kind of novice-friendly DX.

badsectoracula 4y ago
QB64 is almost a faithful recreation of QBasic with a bunch of extensions, though i'm not sure if it has a QBasic-like "live" editing feature (where you can pause the program while it is running, run functions or modify the code and then continue from there).
- zozbot234 4y ago
  Just found out about it. Apparently it transpiles the BASIC code into C++, which sounds a bit hacky TBH, given how crazy the semantics of C++ can be. They do have an impressive graphical recreation of the old text-mode IDE.
pjmlp 4y ago
Yes there is, C++ Builder. Which everyone else failed to reproduce to this day.