QuickBASIC

Quick Basic is a BASIC development environment for MS- DOS, Mac OS and OS / 2

QuickBASIC allows the building of Basic code in executable files as well as in modules and libraries. The final version is published QuickBasic Extended 7.1 PDS ( Professional Development System ) that is shipped with, among others, support for the ISAM file format and an improved memory management. QBasic, which was included with MS- DOS version 5, based on QuickBasic 4.5.

For the Apple Macintosh, the product " Microsoft QuickBasic version 1:00 for the Apple Macintosh " existed.

Functionalities

Some other functionalities lift QuickBasic of other Basic distributions from:

  • By a mouse - and menu-driven interface, source code edit comfortable.
  • In the development environment, online documentation of all functions is integrated.
  • Control structures such as DO and SELECT do jump instructions with GOTO largely unnecessary.
  • QuickBasic support subroutines. A distinction between subroutines with return value (functions ) and those with no return value (procedures). Subroutines are processed in separate windows, so that a clear program structure is possible. Especially through this support procedural programming eliminates the need to work with line numbers as labels and many GOSUB statements.

Compatibility

It was, apart from a few exceptions to largely compatible with GWBasic. QBasic programs run on QuickBasic 4.5.

For the Support of Hercules graphics cards had to QuickBasic 4.5 the TSR msherc.com be started in advance.

QuickBasic today

After the introduction of Visual Basic Quick Basic was not developed any further. QuickBasic is focused on the outdated operating system MS- DOS, which is hardly ever used. It lacks support for many possibilities of modern operating systems such as concurrent processes, high screen resolutions in the graphics mode or the automatic creation of dialog boxes. Nevertheless QuickBasic as well QBasic is still in use today, and numerous private websites dealing with the subject. This is mainly due to the ease of learning and the great proliferation in the past. Meanwhile, there are a lot of Basic dialects, to which many of the former QuickBasic programmers have switched.

QuickBasic and QBasic can be used even today in Windows Vista and Windows 7 (but only in text mode and in 32- bit environments ).

In addition, there is an open-source 32-bit compiler called FreeBASIC, which is based on QuickBasic, and in particular with the compiler option ( " -lang qb " ), the most QuickBasic or QBasic programs compiled. There is also the Qb64 Project, which is in a sense a port of QuickBasic to 64 bits.

MS-DOS
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