# Best version of BASIC for PC?



## Derek895

I used to do a fair bit of programming back in my teens, and would like to get into it again. BASIC is my preference, but I am unsure which version. It would be mainly for 2D graphics / sprites rather than 3D. Has anyone any recommendations. I have looked at Dark Basic, Blitz Basic and Pure Basic - are there any other versions worth considering?

Derek


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## johnwill

There's always Microsoft Visual Basic.


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## LoneWolf071

VB is a lot for a liscence....


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## ReeKorl

Dark BASIC is more geared towards 3D programming...

If you're looking for something quite cheap, then you could always try good old QBASIC - it's free! It's a bit cumbersome at times, and doesn't have some of the functionality built into later versions of BASIC editors, but it can do the job.


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## clark

How about Turbo Pascal. It's less cumbersome than QBASIC and simple to learn. Although I did once try to use it with XP and had a few problems.


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## Derek895

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I am looking into Blitz at the minute, which seems quite good. Visual Basic is fairly expensive, so I think thats out. Who is Turbo Pascal by?

Derek


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## ReeKorl

Turbo Pascal is by Borland - download and info page for Turbo Pascal V5.5 is here.


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## johnwill

Pascal is old school, I doubt he wants to start there. :smile: C++ is where it's at right now in development, with Visual Basic on it's heels for smaller applications.


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## clark

I'd like to argue that point if I may John - although I'm sure you'll quite easily put me in my place. :wink: 

I agree that C++ is more useful but I'm not so sure it's good as a beginners language. Pascal's command line style environment is a good place to learn the logic of sequence, selection, and iteration. Pascal will only compile and run if the code is written properly. What I think is more important is to learn to write proper, validated code that runs fast and efficiently before getting carried away with the distractions that an object driven environment offers.


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## johnwill

OTOH, what's the point of learning an obsolete educational language if you want to start doing real application programming? :grin:

It's really all in what you want to accomplish. Pascal wouldn't be bad if you just wanted to learn about general programming. OTOH, if you actually want to get a job or develop applications, C++ has far more support and 3rd party extensions available.


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## Stu_computer

Hi Derek. Things have changed a lot over the years, you might like to get yourself a copy of JustBASIC to play around with, it's easy to use and it's FREE!

JustBASIC 

I find that a lot of the new GUI stuff concentrates on showing you how to make a form and add buttons, menus, etc. and assumes you already know the code to add for the actual function your after. So make sure you can get decent tutorials for whatever you choose in the end.

On another note...

An interesting bit of computer history is the Apple Lisa-came out in the early 80's. The Lisa operating system featured cooperative (non-preemptive) multitasking and virtual memory-extremely advanced features for a microcomputer back then, and it had a really nice GUI. It was written mainly in pascal. So was the Macintosh. I 'm pretty sure that qualifies as 'real application programming'.

(The big boys on the block were still trying to get that stuff right 15 years later...their getting close now. :grin: )


Your right Clark, Pascal is a nice language to sink your teeth into to actually learn programming techniques. Psuedo-code easily translates to Pascal to proof the code, and if your getting into OOP the learing curve is a lot easier too with TurboPascal. It lost the popularity contest though, but it's still around, Delphi/Kylix/Lazarus are reiterations of Pascal.


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