HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic

Perhaps this is a FAQ, but I scrolled back through the articles still active on 
our newsreader and didn't see it.  

I am wondering if there is currently a set of object oriented extensions
available for quick basic, or some plan to implement them in any future
versions of basic from various vendors.

It seems like with the way basic is headed, this would be a natural next
step for the language?

Alan

 
___________________________________________________________________________
Alan W. Dye   PHONE: (208) 323-6167        adye@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com
                FAX: (208) 323-6344        71053,1301@compuserve.com
    
Software Applications Specialist           "Cleverness is its own reward."
Hewlett Packard Boise Site Operations  
Information Systems Group                  #include <disclaim.h>
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: jfoy@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Jeff Foy)
Subject: Re: 16 bit INP/OUT functions (let's start a QB 5.0 wish list)
Organization: University of Washington
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 04:13:28 GMT

In <1992Sep1.013315.25064@julian.uwo.ca> wlsmith@valve.heart.rri.uwo.ca (Wayne Smith) writes:

>It's probably futile, but if there ever will be a version 5, it should have...

Definitely futile. QuickBASIC is, essentially, a non-product. Microsoft
is going to be announcing a Visual BASIC for DOS (that's right, for DOS)
that will put the final nails into QuickBASIC's coffin. That should
happen any day now (early September according to my sources).

>- pointer (mouse) support

Said to be in VB/DOS. QB has the support for it (the rodent) in the
environment. If you mean rodent support for your own programs, you should
get Microsoft's PDS 7.1. It has a nice rodent module (user-interface
toolbox if you prefer).

>- more choice in screen editor modes (up to 132 X 66 ?)

I'd kill for 132x66 on my monitor. But this bloody Paradise VGA card only
goes to 132x43 and even then I get these little CHR$(254) characters at the
head and tail of each line. And the BLINK! Nasty!

>- support for in-line machine language code? (Wow, that would be cool)

Uh, I dunno if I like that idea. Much prefer external asm routines.



-- 
Jeffery Foy -- Either: jfoy@glia.biostr.washington.edu -or-
                       foysys!jeffery@cs.washington.edu
             *** FREE BILL & KATHY SWAN ***
-*- Happy as a clam to be using Professional YAM -*-  :)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: ajcoyne@vax1.tcd.ie
Subject: Re: PDDQ/Crescent, Microhelp
Organization: Trinity College Dublin
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 18:10:48 GMT

In article <dangold1.714921359@pv1414.vincent.iastate.edu>, dangold1@iastate.edu (Daniel M Goldman) writes:
> I'm looking for comments and opinions on some BASIC related items
> I've been reviewing.  Cresent Software has an impressive array of
> what appear to be useful tools, like QuickPak, PDQ Basic, Quick-
> screen, utilities, etc.  MicroHelp also has quite a collection of
> items as well. 
>    Does anyone have any good or bad experience with the products
> or the companies?  I'd like to hear what others have to say, as
> so far I am favorably impressed and am considering trying some of
> these.  

I use a lot of Crescent's stuff, some of it is excellent, some of it
is ok.  Their president, Ethan Winer, is a Basic Genius and the code
he wrote (most of Quickpak and PDQ) is particularly good. (He's the
author of 'Basic Techniques and Utilities' - a must for any Basic
programmer)
Quickpak is a collection of several hundred routines, some in Basic
and some in ASM that do things like windowing, access to DOS and BIOS
services, searching, sorting, pull down menus, even routines for an 
editor and spreadsheet.
PDQ is a set of replacement link libraries that allow you to compile
really fast exes to very small sizes (less than 1k program size in
some cases).  It also allows you to write TSR programs with ease, and 
using Basic.
The company is very professional and has an impressive customer list
which includes Microsoft.  They also have a support BBS.

 - Aidan





Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: wlsmith@valve.heart.rri.uwo.ca (Wayne Smith)
Subject: Re: 16 bit INP/OUT functions (let's start a QB 5.0 wish list)
Organization: The John P. Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 05:24:08 GMT

In article <jfoy.715320808@glia> jfoy@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Jeff Foy) writes:
>>It's probably futile, but if there ever will be a version 5, it should have...
>
>Definitely futile. QuickBASIC is, essentially, a non-product. Microsoft
>is going to be announcing a Visual BASIC for DOS (that's right, for DOS)
>that will put the final nails into QuickBASIC's coffin. That should
>happen any day now (early September according to my sources).

I have VB (version 1 I guess, it doesn't say on the box) and I don't
like 
a) won't do peeks/pokes/in's/out's
b) can't do a CALL ABSOLUTE
(I do heavy duty data aquisition from custom hardware, and use debug
to write high speed aquisition/storage routines.  I then use bload
and bsave to move the routines into 'unused' memory areas (&h6000 to
&h9000), where they can be called from QB.  I use peek's and poke's to
set/alter the routines and to retrieve collected data.  Hey, it's fast,
painless, it works, no assembler to mess with, etc).
It would be nice to use VB to make a front-end for data display and
instrumentation control, but I guess it won't work the way I'm
doing it.

>>- pointer (mouse) support
>Said to be in VB/DOS. QB has the support for it (the rodent) in the
>environment. If you mean rodent support for your own programs, you should
>get Microsoft's PDS 7.1. It has a nice rodent module (user-interface
>toolbox if you prefer).

If there are no mouse functions in VB/DOS then it's a crock
(ie, let's say you've got a bit-map and you want to do image
analysis, so you want to display the coordinates of the mouse on the 
screen regardless of wheather or not you click any buttons).
like can you do this: x = MOUSEX : y = MOUSEY  ???

>>- more choice in screen editor modes (up to 132 X 66 ?)
>I'd kill for 132x66 on my monitor. But this bloody Paradise VGA card only

I've got a cheap ($70) 1 meg Trident based card that I can set to
132 X 66 (jeeze what small letters!), but when I go
qb /h, it goes into 80 x 50 (why can't it stay in 132 x 66?)

>>- support for in-line machine language code? (Wow, that would be cool)
>Uh, I dunno if I like that idea. Much prefer external asm routines.
I'd rather not mess with external libraries and junk.
If I wanted to do that, I'd also slide down the sharp end of a razor
blade on my balls, or learn C.
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: ST21519@VM.CC.LATECH.EDU
Subject: Long Integer Problem (Solved)
Organization: LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 12:03:13 CST

Thanks to all those who sent EMAIL with tips as to how to solve my previously
mentioned problem with long integers!
 
Thanks again to everyone!
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: ST21519@VM.CC.LATECH.EDU
Subject: Math Functions with Long Integers
Organization: LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 13:17:41 CST

I would like to use Long Integers in a program, but try as I may I cannot
perform any math operations above the 32767 limit of Integers.
 
Here is an example:
 
ZPhooey& = 9 * 3600
Print "ZPhooey="; ZPhooey&
 
This outputs "ZPhooey=32400".
 
BUT changing the multiplication from 9 * 3600 to 10 * 3600 gives me an Overflow
error, so there must be something special to perform math with Long Integers?
Integers?
 
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
From: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Robert Meunier)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: Re: PDDQ/Crescent, Microhelp
Date: 29 Aug 92 20:05:12 GMT
Reply-To: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca
Organization: Hydro-Quebec (IREQ)


	I have been using Crescent QuickPak professionnal for many
years now. I like this product alot. I have also had a look at
MicroHelp a few years back. I didn't like this product. I was many 
function program by many individuals.

Hope this help.



---
Robert Meunier                     Institut de Recherche d'Hydro-Quebec
Ingenieur                          1800 Montee Ste-Julie, Varennes
Internet: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca  Qc, Canada, J3X 1S1 
maintainer: BASIC mailing list request to basic-request@ireq.hydro.qc.ca
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: djo7613@hardy.u.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor)
Subject: Re: VB for DOS
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 14:39:55 GMT

hlr@aber.ac.uk (Hazel Marie Davey) writes:

>Dear Basic Users,

...<stuff trimmed>

>(3) With the discussions of compatibility in this news group coming to the
>    conclusion that new Basic's from Microsoft should be compatible with
>    current versions of C can we conclude that this will apply to 
>    VB for Dos? In particular is it compatible with DOS applications written
>    in QuickC for Windows? i.e can I write a front end in VB for Dos and LINK
>    rather than SHELL to my number crunching C program?

OR, (in my case), link to my serious Fortran number-crunching programs?  (C is
fine and all that, he said, nimbly ducking flames, but sometimes there's
nothing like Fortran for real computations!! :)  :)  etc.)  I'm using MS
Fortran 5.1, btw.


>----- 
-- 
"Moby" Dick O'Connor                         djo7613@u.washington.edu 
Washington Department of Fisheries           *I brake for salmonids* 
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: delozier@Condor.mcs.kent.edu (Greg Delozier)
Subject: Re: PDDQ/Crescent, Microhelp
Organization: Kent State University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 05:52:54 GMT

In article <dangold1.714921359@pv1414.vincent.iastate.edu> dangold1@iastate.edu (Daniel M Goldman) writes:
>I'm looking for comments and opinions on some BASIC related items
>I've been reviewing.  Cresent Software has an impressive array of
>what appear to be useful tools, like QuickPak, PDQ Basic, Quick-
>screen, utilities, etc.  MicroHelp also has quite a collection of
>items as well. 
>   Does anyone have any good or bad experience with the products
>or the companies?  I'd like to hear what others have to say, as
>so far I am favorably impressed and am considering trying some of
>these.  
>    You can e-mail your response, or please post so others can 
>react to your comments.  -Thanks y'all, DmG
>

Well, I haven't purchased anything from them lately, but about six
months ago I needed some advice on a Basic project and ordered 
Crescent's demo disk. It had some really neat stuff on it... Additionally,
Ethan Winer (from Crescent) and Mark Novisoff (of MicroHelp) are 
frequently found in discussions on Compuserv, and are very helpful. 
In fact, Ethan even wrote some code for me once, in response to a 
how-do-you-do-this question that wasn't trivial. They both seem like
good guys, running nice companies.

The general impression I got was a preference for Crescent's products,
but I'm no expert.  The CS people seemed to think highly of both 
companies.

-greg delozier/sr analyst/loral defense systems/ & graduate student...


Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: wlsmith@valve.heart.rri.uwo.ca (Wayne Smith)
Subject: 16 bit INP/OUT functions (let's start a QB 5.0 wish list)
Organization: The John P. Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 01:33:15 GMT

I guess that you can't do 16 bit input/output's in QB 4.5
(like out port,data, or in port,data, where data is a 16 bit quantity)...

It's probably futile, but if there ever will be a version 5, it should have...

- pointer (mouse) support
- support for 640X480, 800X600, and 1024X768 graphics modes
- more choice in screen editor modes (up to 132 X 66 ?)
- 16 bit in/out functions
- support for in-line machine language code? (Wow, that would be cool)
- (add more here)...

Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: laned@athena.ecs.csus.edu (Douglas A. Lane)
Subject: FAQ List.. where is one for BASIC ?
Keywords:  FAQ 
Organization: California State University, Sacramento
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 02:31:17 GMT

-- Greetings all --

	At one point on this group there was a mention of a FAQ list.  Does
	anyone know where this list is ?

Doug
From: hlr@aber.ac.uk (Hazel Marie Davey)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: VB for DOS
Date: 3 Sep 92 12:00:34 GMT
Organization: University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Dear Basic Users,

Now that VB for Dos has been officially announced I would like to
ask a few questions about it. If anyone has the answers to any of
the questions below could they please
let me know either via the news group or via E-mail to

hlr@aber.ac.uk

(1) Does VB for Dos have full control over COM ports as QB does
    (I'm asking this because VB for Windows doesn't have any
     direct support for COM ports).

(2) Does VB for Dos allow direct access to memory? I need INP and OUT
    statements to set registers / read data from ADC/DAC/DIO(Digital In-Out) 
    cards. Can I suspend updating of forms / screen etc while I'm talking
    to my Data Acquisition card so that I don't lose any data? 

(3) With the discussions of compatibility in this news group coming to the
    conclusion that new Basic's from Microsoft should be compatible with
    current versions of C can we conclude that this will apply to 
    VB for Dos? In particular is it compatible with DOS applications written
    in QuickC for Windows? i.e can I write a front end in VB for Dos and LINK
    rather than SHELL to my number crunching C program?

(4) Does VB for DOS have a graphing add-on as part of either the standard or 
    professional version to allow me to display XY graphs etc on the screen
    and/or printer.

(5) Speaking of printers, as VB for Windows uses the Windows printer drivers
    what sort of printer support is offered by VB for DOS? i.e. can I print 
    graphics from VB for Dos or am I limited to PRINT for text and
    crude Print Screen for graphics?

(6) If I shell from a VB for Dos program to something else is execution of 
    the VB program suspended or does it continue in the background? Also,
    once the application that I shelled to is complete can I easily 
    discover whether or not it executed correctly?
 
I appreciate that some of these questions are a bit deep but VB for Windows
looked really good until I found that I had no direct COM support or low level
access to data acquisition cards.

The reviews that I have read about VB for Dos look really good but not
suprisingly they don't address my problems exactly (reviews never do).

Perhaps someone on this News Group has the answers, I hope so.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Hazel Davey   (hlr@aber.ac.uk)
Dept. Biological Sciences,
Aberystwyth,
Wales
----- 
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: roise@u.milton.u.washington.edu (Linda Roise)
Subject: DOS 5 and QBasic
Organization: Seattle University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 02:01:05 GMT

Is the QBasic that comes with DOS 5 the same as the QuickBASIC
Sherm's talking about here?  If not, what's the difference?  Do I need
to buy it separately, is the question, since I already have DOS 5 and
Windows 3.1?

In article <1992Sep1.024834.8630@panix.com> sherman@panix.com (Sherman Chan) writes:

   Anybody have any thoughts on APBasic for MSDOS?  Would anyone recommend
   registering it, versus buying a copy of Microsoft QUICKbasic?
   It seems like a nice tight little environment that's perfect for a
   very limited environment (Amiga running a software emulation, two floppies,
   no hard drive, MDA display equivalent), but since registration is $40, that
   puts it within shouting distance of QuickBASIC and I was wondering if
   anything major would be sacrificed by using it and saving about $25.


--
_____________________________INTERNET:_____________ roise@sumax.seattleu.edu 
                             roise@u.washington.edu or lroise@sun.lclark.edu
    Linda L. Roise           FREENET: ___________aj023@cleveland.freenet.edu
____________________________ PRODIGY: _______________________________JXCX33A
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:54:09 EDT
From: <SXC3@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: binary translation made easy?

Hello all,
   My apologies if this is a mindless question, but my QuickBasic education
is brilliant in spots and dismal in large patches.  I have a multichannel
card which likes to save datafiles in binary, but I like to analyze the
files in ASCII.  Is there an elegant (or quick and dirty) way to convert
from one to the other?  We save abt. 20 good-sized files every day, so
looking things up in a table is _not_ a viable option.
                    Thanks much, Sabrina Chase
                    a.k.a. SXC3@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: wlsmith@valve.heart.rri.uwo.ca (Wayne Smith)
Subject: Re: Mouse.bas (it's not elegant, but it works...)
Organization: The John P. Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 02:54:20 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.113111.20243@cs.mun.ca> daryl@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Daryl Clarke) writes:
>Why bother rewriting what is already done?
>
>QuickPak Pro has this stuff already. Along with the sources.
>The $150 that you pay is small beans compared to the time it
>would take to do it yourself.

What about the time it takes just to find out that this QuickPak Pro thing
is or who has it (what, do they advertise on the evening news or something?)
what about the time to install it or use it or whatever?

By the way, I have a complete Western Digital motherboard manual that
details all of the bios / Dos calls (like the mouse thing), and I can
program in assembler, but I decided to check out the com port data to 
see if I could make sense of the data, and I lucked out.
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: dangold1@iastate.edu (Daniel M Goldman)
Subject: PDDQ/Crescent, Microhelp
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 13:15:59 GMT

I'm looking for comments and opinions on some BASIC related items
I've been reviewing.  Cresent Software has an impressive array of
what appear to be useful tools, like QuickPak, PDQ Basic, Quick-
screen, utilities, etc.  MicroHelp also has quite a collection of
items as well. 
   Does anyone have any good or bad experience with the products
or the companies?  I'd like to hear what others have to say, as
so far I am favorably impressed and am considering trying some of
these.  
    You can e-mail your response, or please post so others can 
react to your comments.  -Thanks y'all, DmG

Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: kwj@iastate.edu (kwj)
Subject: Noseguy
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 01:15:02 GMT

Ooops.  Wrong header.  I'll try this again:


Last week, I found a cute little program called Noseguy.  Essentially,
Noseguy is a sprite, composed of a nose, army boots and a hat, that walks
around the screen espousing words of wisdom.  Regrettably, the program
was written in C for X-windows.

I would like to convert Noseguy from C into BASIC for the PC.  However, Noseguy
is built around bitmaps with hexadecimal arrays {0x00,0xff, ..., 0x00}.
I have figured out that each hexadecimal number, when converted to binary
form, represents on/off characteristics of 8 pixels, but I do not know
how to put the series of pixels together.  (Noseguy is comprised of 64 x 64
pixels; the hexadecimal array is comprised of 512 numbers).

Any suggestions on how to interpret and decipher bitmaps would be greatly
appreciated.  

-- kwj


Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: daryl@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Daryl Clarke)
Subject: Re: Mouse.bas (it's not elegant, but it works...)
Organization: CS Dept., Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 14:20:48 GMT

wlsmith@valve.heart.rri.uwo.ca (Wayne Smith) writes:

>In article <1992Aug25.113111.20243@cs.mun.ca> daryl@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Daryl Clarke) writes:
>>Why bother rewriting what is already done?
>>
>>QuickPak Pro has this stuff already. Along with the sources.
>>The $150 that you pay is small beans compared to the time it
>>would take to do it yourself.

>What about the time it takes just to find out that this QuickPak Pro thing
>is or who has it (what, do they advertise on the evening news or something?)
>what about the time to install it or use it or whatever?

Crescent Software
1-800-35-basic

Installing takes <5 minutes.
Using it is the same as using BASIC function calls.

Ack!Phftht!


-- 
Consider it stepped on.                                            Daryl Clarke
  - Valentine McKee, "Tremors"
                                                       daryl@garfield.cs.mun.ca
                                                       daryl@sparky2.esd.mun.ca
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: dhiggs@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (General Protection Fault)
Subject: BASIC *IS* a "real" language!
Organization: is the refuge of the unimaginative!
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 23:37:58 GMT

In article <pharris.714289533@tellus> pharris@roseworthy.adelaide.edu.au (Paul
Harris) writes:
+
+I am fairly new to NEWS, but to add to the argument being COMP.LANG.BASIC
+may help the acceptance of BASIC as a "true" programming language now that
+"proper subroutine calls" and structured programming are supported. In my
+simple view (and I have done little FORTRAN lately) FORTRAN and BASIC have
+moved toward common ground in some ways.
+
+Regards, Paul Harris
+PHarris@Roseworthy.Adelaide.EDU.AU

Let me do a major paraphrase of good old Abe Lincoln here.  At one of Abe's
speaking appearances someone asked why he doesn't just declare all slaves to
be free.  His response was to ask something like - "If I tell you a lambs tail 
is a leg, how many legs does a lamb have?"  The man responded with 5 and was
rebuffed with something to the effect that to say something is so does not make
it to be the truth.

We all hear people say that BASIC is NOT a "real" language.  That does not mean
that BASIC is NOT a REAL language when you get down to the truth - it just 
means the person who insists that BASIC is other than a real language is either
uninformed or narrow minded.  Likewise,  changing the name of this group to 
comp.lang.basic will not make BASIC any more or less a "real" language or be 
accepted (or not) as such.  The truth is - BASIC IS A REAL LANGUAGE.  Period, 
end of story.

     "Free your mind and the rest will follow."
                                               -En Vogue

Keith.
-- 
D.K.Higgs  DATA+@osu.edu  a.k.a  dhiggs@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu _____   __o
Ohio State University Libraries, Acquisitions Department      -------    -\<,
Continuation Acquisition Division                              ------ ( )/ ( )
~~(614)292-6314~~~~~~fax(614)292-2015~~~~~~~~~~\_________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: sherman@panix.com (Sherman Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: APBasic for MSDOS - opinions sought
Date: 1 Sep 92 02:48:34 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

Anybody have any thoughts on APBasic for MSDOS?  Would anyone recommend
registering it, versus buying a copy of Microsoft QUICKbasic?
It seems like a nice tight little environment that's perfect for a
very limited environment (Amiga running a software emulation, two floppies,
no hard drive, MDA display equivalent), but since registration is $40, that
puts it within shouting distance of QuickBASIC and I was wondering if
anything major would be sacrificed by using it and saving about $25.

-Sherm
From: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Robert Meunier)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: QB5.0 wish list {Was: Re: 16 bit INP/OUT ...}
Date: 4 Sep 92 13:08:40 GMT
Reply-To: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca
Organization: Hydro-Quebec (IREQ)


and 
	- support for pointer. That is a must.
	- array inside structure (only available in PBDS7.1)
	- conditionnal compilation like in C
	- Some sort of Object Oriented feature


---
Robert Meunier                     Institut de Recherche d'Hydro-Quebec
Ingenieur                          1800 Montee Ste-Julie, Varennes
Internet: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca  Qc, Canada, J3X 1S1 
maintainer: BASIC mailing list request to basic-request@ireq.hydro.qc.ca