BASIC on WinXP

June 6, 2004 11:54 AM

Okay three gifts. (inside). But first, could you help me find a very basic language program that will allow me to ..........10 Print"kill" 20 Goto 10 on my pc xp pro machine.

Sketchup, a 3d program for everyone.
Pimex , a contacts manager.
Live, I'm mixing the sound track of Blade Runner to
loop in the office computer.

posted by JohnR to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

Best answer: I'm confused. Your "gifts" all cost money. Or were the gifts just the info that these apps exist?

In any case, here are some FREE basic compilers: http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/basic.shtml
posted by grumblebee at 12:12 PM on June 6, 2004

here are some REAL gifts:

Blender, a free 3D modeling application.

Some freeware contact managers, but this page does have some popup ads.

Pro Tools Free, a free audio mixer.
posted by grumblebee at 12:20 PM on June 6, 2004 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: From your link, grumblebee, this one looks good to me. Thanks.
posted by JohnR at 12:26 PM on June 6, 2004

Response by poster: kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill
Just the ticket.
posted by JohnR at 1:17 PM on June 6, 2004

I'm very confused as to what has transpired here.
posted by falconred at 1:44 PM on June 6, 2004

Does Ask Metafilter have any taglines yet? Because

Ask Metafilter: I'm very confused as to what has transpired here.

is good. And I too am confused. Very.
posted by iconomy at 2:03 PM on June 6, 2004

Well, that looks like the output from the simple BASIC program that JohnR posted in his original question:

10 print "kill"
20 goto 10

the second line, line 20, sends make the computer repeat the first line, line 10, which cause the computer to print the word kill on the screen. After which the computer runs line 20, which sends it back to line 10...

As to WHY JohnR wants to do this, I couldn't say.

John?
posted by grumblebee at 2:04 PM on June 6, 2004

oops, that should be "the second line, line 20, makes the computer repeat the first line..."
posted by grumblebee at 2:04 PM on June 6, 2004

And I'm STILL confused about John's "gifts."
posted by grumblebee at 2:05 PM on June 6, 2004

Why not BrainFuck:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<
[.--.+++..->.-.+<]
posted by abcde at 2:33 PM on June 6, 2004

Response by poster: Just wanted to get back to the original interface with this machine, to do some thinking about it.
posted by JohnR at 3:02 PM on June 6, 2004

There is nothing original about BASIC on Windows XP.

Microsoft once had a contract that required IBM to ship a BASIC interpreter with every "PC" type machine they sold. They continue to offer Visual Basic, but it is just another .NET Common Language Runtime language. VB is no more authentic than C# or anything else on the .net platform.
posted by Kwantsar at 5:35 PM on June 6, 2004

Response by poster:
There is nothing original about BASIC on Windows XP.
Original to me. My first interface was the Timex Sinlair. I wanted to recapture that "feel", to compare to my current grok.
posted by JohnR at 5:50 PM on June 6, 2004

Well, sounds like he already found an answer in smallbasic, but doesn't qbasic still come with XP? It may not be installed by default, but you may be able to find it in the CD's i386 directory as qbasic.ex_ and use expand qbasic.ex_ to c:\windows\system32\qbasic.exe. If you cant, you could grab it from any win95 or winnt4 box of a friend.
posted by hincandenza at 11:16 PM on June 6, 2004

Do you want a BASIC programming language, or a basic programming language. Because, you know, there's a difference. Anyway, people pointed me towards Python when I last asked for a new programming language.
posted by seanyboy at 8:05 AM on June 7, 2004