SS said:
Some time ago I remember using GWBASIC to write programs and routines on my
computer. Good for formulas etc. Is there any freeware BASIC programming
utility I can use? Preferably with a manual/liting of commands as its a long
time since I did any programming!
The best Basic I have found is Rapidq basic.
It is now packaged as RQ2 with thousands of example programs:
www.airsys.org Download the RQ2 pack in the lower right corner.
http://www.wildgardenseed.com/RQDP/links.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rapidq/files/$RapidQ2/
RapidQ is a Basic with graphical elements, so you can easily make a
program form, and add the user interface you want. The code is easier
to read than for example visual basic. I had struggled with visual
basic for years without understanding how it works, then I found rapidq
and everything became easy.
I better give you the basics about the licence of rapidq.
The compiler was released as freely distributable freeware.
Later the code was sold to a mr Perlman who renamed it to Realbasic and
made it commercial.
He could not, though, change the licence of the compiler that was
already released as freeware. The use of rapidq continued year after
year and the compiler was developed without being rewritten, by
developing external libraries. Mr Perlman kept nagging the rapidq
community with new offers to get into realbasic, and he tried to
discourage people from using rapidq. Lately mr Perlman has done what he
can to make server owners stop distributing rapidq, and some of them
have closed their sites, but many other sites remain and people are as
active as before in the rapidq community. He has no right to stop the
use of rapidq at all, especially since he declared the rapidq language
free to use for anybody, he only owns the copyright to the freeware
compiler. Which means we are not allowed to hack into the compiler, but
we can use the compiler as much as we like, and distribute it freely
too.
The newest initiative is the distribution called RQ2, it contains all
valuable material you need for using rapidq. It contains compiler,
development environments of different kinds, help files, and 37MB of
example programs which you can use and build your own programs on.
Download size from airsys 18MB.
(There are, of course, smaller distributions, you can start with only
the rqbeta package, for example.)
Rapidq is very much compatible with early basics like the microsoft
basic, quickbasic, GW-basic, and most simple programs in these dialects
will work directly in rapidq too.
The easiest way to learn how to write programs is to study other
people's programs, that's why a big collection of example programs is
important.
In this collection you can usually find a program similar to what you
want to do,
or the necessary routines you need, or a program which can be developed
into what you want.
