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Worth noting that you can also run the original qbasic in dosbox. That's handy if you want to run old qbasic code, since typically that code expects to be able

Worth noting that you can also run the original qbasic in dosbox. That's handy if you want to run old qbasic code, since typically that code expects to be able to poke hardware registers to do anything beyond what the built in bits of basic can do (for example, adding mouse support or playing sounds beyond beeps).

thatha7777 3y ago
Thank you! I use DOSBox to run QuickBASIC 4.5 on my Mac to check my implementation :) Unfortunately, Magic Dosbox for Android doesn't seem to work very well with QB45.exe... Aside from linking with assembler, what QuickBASIC 4.5 funcs give you the ability to interface with the hardware directly in the fashion you're describing?
- londons_explore 3y ago
  'peek' and 'poke' were the commands for messing about with low level stuff if I remember correctly. With those two you could do anything.
  - thatha7777 3y ago
    Ah, yes, you're 100% right. Writing a full-on IBM PC/DOS emulator is beyond the scope of this project -- the project's goal is my dad's request to "show off programming while drinking coffee" :P.
  - Dwedit 3y ago
    There were also IN and OUT commands. Used by programs to directly set the palette on VGA, among other things (entering tweaked VGA modes, etc)
deleted 3y ago
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marttt 3y ago
Yep, me and my son are currently daily users of QB1.1 in DOSBox. Works nicely, but you might need trial and error to figure out the [Break] key when you're on a laptop. Haven't tested, but QB1.1 or 4.5 should also work with vDosPlus [1]. The original vDos apparently has issues with keyboard input in QB, but, arguably [2], this has been fixed in vDosPlus. There's also that bootable USB stick with FreeDOS or SvarDOS or smth on bare metal + native QBasic within it. I imagine this would actually make a really nice, responsive and distraction free environment for a child. DOS could also boot straight into QBasic via autoexec.bat, or present some fancy personalized menu.bat for the child, which is, yknow, cool. Or... it sure used to be in 1995. :) As a non-native English speaker, I must also say that QBasic's simple syntax is incredibly good for teaching programming to children. Not too many footguns with weird (#$ymb0ls{}) either. It really is a great teaching language, even in 2023. 1: http://www.vdosplus.org/ http://www.vdosplus.org/ 2: List of additional features as compared to original vDos: "Keyboard IRQ1/INT9 handling for running programs such as MS-DOS EDIT, QBASIC, Visual Basic and XyWrite": http://individual.utoronto.ca/wengier/vDosPlus/featurelist.htm http://individual.utoronto.ca/wengier/vDosPlus/featurelist.h...

thatha7777 3y ago

Thank you! I use DOSBox to run QuickBASIC 4.5 on my Mac to check my implementation :) Unfortunately, Magic Dosbox for Android doesn't seem to work very well with QB45.exe... Aside from linking with assembler, what QuickBASIC 4.5 funcs give you the ability to interface with the hardware directly in the fashion you're describing?

londons_explore 3y ago
'peek' and 'poke' were the commands for messing about with low level stuff if I remember correctly. With those two you could do anything.
- thatha7777 3y ago
  Ah, yes, you're 100% right. Writing a full-on IBM PC/DOS emulator is beyond the scope of this project -- the project's goal is my dad's request to "show off programming while drinking coffee" :P.
- Dwedit 3y ago
  There were also IN and OUT commands. Used by programs to directly set the palette on VGA, among other things (entering tweaked VGA modes, etc)

deleted 3y ago

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marttt 3y ago

Yep, me and my son are currently daily users of QB1.1 in DOSBox. Works nicely, but you might need trial and error to figure out the [Break] key when you're on a laptop. Haven't tested, but QB1.1 or 4.5 should also work with vDosPlus [1]. The original vDos apparently has issues with keyboard input in QB, but, arguably [2], this has been fixed in vDosPlus. There's also that bootable USB stick with FreeDOS or SvarDOS or smth on bare metal + native QBasic within it. I imagine this would actually make a really nice, responsive and distraction free environment for a child. DOS could also boot straight into QBasic via autoexec.bat, or present some fancy personalized menu.bat for the child, which is, yknow, cool. Or... it sure used to be in 1995. :) As a non-native English speaker, I must also say that QBasic's simple syntax is incredibly good for teaching programming to children. Not too many footguns with weird (#$ymb0ls{}) either. It really is a great teaching language, even in 2023. 1: http://www.vdosplus.org/ http://www.vdosplus.org/ 2: List of additional features as compared to original vDos: "Keyboard IRQ1/INT9 handling for running programs such as MS-DOS EDIT, QBASIC, Visual Basic and XyWrite": http://individual.utoronto.ca/wengier/vDosPlus/featurelist.htm http://individual.utoronto.ca/wengier/vDosPlus/featurelist.h...