Basic is a modern developed language with many possibilities! At least as important: it is a pleasure to work with. Whether it’s databases or microcontroller systems, there’s something for everyone, from beginner to expert. And it is not for nothing that HCC has an Interest Group that has survived the corona effortlessly. Read more about 3 versions of Basic here.
Wim van Beek
In PC-Active 323, Simone de K wonders whether programming in Basic is difficult. BASIC is certainly not difficult and we will show that in this article by means of three versions of BASIC.
Visual Basic .NET
The first Visual Basic .NET from Microsoft. There are several versions of this and Visual Basic Express is the free version. Microsoft also offers an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), called Visual Studio, suitable for various programming languages. That is an editor (and more) with which one can write the programs. Visual Basic is a Basic version which is aimed at giving users structured programming and has the possibility to create a library of Subs and Functions which can be used as the basis of new programs. Within HCC’s Programming Interest Group there is a Basic group in which Marco Kurvers provides an online session about this Basic version once a week.
Liberty Basic (LB) and Just Basic
The second is Liberty Basic (LB) and Just Basic, the latter of which is the free version of Liberty Basic. It therefore does not have all the possibilities of LB. Both JB and LB include an IDE that allows programs to be written. Within Liberty Basic there are versions with different possibilities. With the $59.95 version, it is already possible to create stand-alone programs. Because LB can also work with line numbers as we had to use them in the early years of HCC at Basic, it is very suitable for returners to this programming language. It is then possible to type in a program from that time in the IDE, after which it runs in the mainwin of LB, almost as we were used to in the 80s. But then one can take on the challenge of bringing the program to a contemporary variant to build where it runs in its own window.
Gordon Rahman has been an LB promoter within HCC!programming for many years. He also provides Basic sessions. For corona once a month at a location in Amstelveen, but Gordon has also switched to online sessions. Within the Basic Group a lesson book was written for LB that was later adapted and expanded by Gordon. Marco Curvers has also written a ‘textbook’, a digital version that runs in the LB IDE. He explains many parts of Basic in general and of LB in particular. Both lesson systems are suitable for beginners.
QB64
Third, I would like to mention QB64. Anyone who has ever worked with Microsoft Q(uick) Basic will immediately recognize the screen of this program. It has slightly more features than Microsoft’s QB. I use it myself when I scanned an old program and turned it into text via an OCR program. QB64 already reports in the editor which syntax errors are in the program. That makes debugging a lot easier. As soon as the errors are resolved via QB64, I will continue in Liberty Basic.
More versions
Of course there are other versions for Windows and also for Linux. For example, a member of the Basic Group within the IG Programming with Proton Basic programs the reading of a stick keyboard and converts its signals into the sound of a carillon. A mighty piece of work to see and hear. Proton Basic was developed to write programs for PIC microcontrollers.
Hans Lunsing wrote an article in the SoftwareBus 2022-1 about how Basic has developed over time.
If someone like Simone de K wants to know more about programming in Basic, I can recommend logging in to a Basic session, in order to get in touch with Gordon and/or Marco. The sessions are announced on https://programmaren.hcc.nl/
A stand of the IG programming can also be found at the HCC! knowledge days.
Useful Links:
https://www.libertybasic.com/
https://www.justbasic.com/
https://qb64.org/
https://www.crownhill.co.uk/category-41.html (Proton Basic)
https://www.picbasic.nl/
