This text editor wasn’t even a separate program, just QBasic running without the programming commands. In fact, it was so word processor-like that Microsoft used it as the basis for its MS-DOS Editor. You no longer needed to number your lines (though you could if you wanted.) If you needed to insert a new line, you could just move your cursor into place and add a line. Unlike the old command line versions of BASIC, QBasic allowed you to go back and edit lines. Seeing it for the first time, QBasic looked more like a word processor than a programming environment. (Though even QuickBASIC software ran slow compared to more professional languages like C.) Since people expected computers to come with BASIC, Microsoft also made a stripped down version called QBasic. That meant you could use it to compile your own commercial software. QuickBASIC was the premium version, with a full suite of tools for developers. It had menus and mouse support like a modern graphical interface, though it still ran in text mode. Microsoft replaced the crude command line function of BASIC with an Integrated Development Environment that more closely resembles modern programming tools. Microsoft was aware of this, so in their later versions of MS-DOS, they came up with an entirely new programming interface. To add a third variable for example, you might type:Īnd so on, using these early versions of BASIC involved a lot retyping and renumbering lines. This was fine for short programs like the example above, but it could get cumbersome very quickly. If you did this, and then typed “RUN”, the program would ask you for two variables, add them, and print the sum. So to create a simple adding program, you might type: Generally, you numbered them by the 10s, so that you could add in commands you needed to. If you wanted to create a program, you had to number your commands. You could type “PRINT 1+1” and press Enter, and it would immediately reply with “2”. You had a command line, much like MS-DOS, where any command would give an immediate answer. While the different versions had different features depending on the machine, they all functioned the same. Suffice it to say that they made versions of BASIC for just about every 1980s computer platform. The history of Microsoft Basic is too long and complex to discuss here. So when I got my second computer in 1993, I was able to move up to QBasic. But these early versions of BASIC were crude even by the standards of the time. I also played around with it quite a bit when I got my own computer. I remember learning it, along with LOGO, on an Apple II in my gifted and talented program. Though they didn’t invent BASIC, it was the software that put Microsoft on the map. As the name implies, it was a basic programming language that allowed you to make all kinds of simple programs. That’s just my own degenerate Photoshopping.Įarly computers almost always came with BASIC.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2023
Categories |