QBASIC Programming for Dummies 630
| QBASIC Programming for Dummies | |
| author | Douglas Hergert |
| pages | 399 |
| publisher | IDG Books Worldwide, Inc |
| rating | 5 out of 10 |
| reviewer | HeavyJay |
| ISBN | 1568840934 |
| summary | "The Fun and Easy Way to Learn QBasic Programming." |
I've read countless books and online tutorials on QBASIC, C++, PHP, and other various languages. I'm sure all you wise programmers can tell me the first sample program that comes to mind with any language, can't you? The classic 'Hello, world!' example. This easy app starts off would-be programmers with a level of confidence and understanding. To my surprise, Douglas Hergert decided not to use the ever-popular example program. So, you might be wondering, what did he use in it's place? A four-page-long currency converter.
This was Mistake #1.
The book started off making me feel stupider than I actually am. This oftentimes discourages readers from pursuing, and the book takes to the shelf, perhaps never to be picked up again. I've noticed that the best way to capture a reader's attention (and explain the most) is to start off with PRINT, INPUT, IF...THEN and GOTO. Then move on to loops, and get technical from there. It best prepares the reader for everything in store, rather than making them feel like idiots. The book didn't do this at all. It started off making in such a way that anyone without experience would be completely lost. IF...THEN doesn't even come in until the eleventh chapter, despite being one of the most important tools in the language!
So, what good can I say about the book? Not much, except that it came with some practical applications. This brings up another grievance I have with it, that being the lack of an accompanying disc. I feel every book on programming with long examples ought to come with a disc containing all example programs, so that the reader can tweak and observe them as he sees fit, without typing in five pages of code. The best way to learn is often by example, and discouraging lazy people doesn't help the learning process along.
Alas, the book does contain some humour, as it's other brothers and sisters from IDG often do. With chapter titles such as Text, Lies, and Videotape and How to Manage Arguments and Influence People, a book can't be completely bad.
Although I suggest beginners steer clear of this book, it can be useful to experienced programmers (supposing they don't think QBASIC a waste of time). It goes deeply into data structures, arrays, and databases. There are many helpful features, but it's definitely not a book to learn from.
You can purchase the QBASIC Programming for Dummies from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Here ya go... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1
there ya go.
Running MS-DOS: QBasic by MS Press.
I'm *NOT* a fan of Microsoft, but this IS a well-written book that covers the QBasic language well.
I used this many years ago when I wanted to modify the source code to VirtualBBS 6.12 (Remember that mess?)
Re:What is next (Score:1, Informative)
But yeah, I agree with your point... learning to use qbasic is about as useless as learning VAX assembler.
A Better Choice (Score:2, Informative)
In my experience, a far better book for beginners than Qbasic for Dummies is The Idiot's Guide to Qbasic. It is very straight forward and much easier for an absolute beginner to understand.
Setting the Wayback machine a bit further, Perhaps the best "beginner's basic" book that I have ever seen was How to program the Commodore 64 (If you have never programmed a computer before). Although very system specific, it explained concepts like arrays in language a beginner might actually understand.
Why use QBASIC at ALL? (Score:5, Informative)
16-bit 100% compatible DOS compiler...
32-bit Console Compiler and GUI Compiler for Windows. Full GUI programs in less than 2k. VERY fast compiled code, very small, no RTL, compile to EXE or DLL. PowerBASIC is really cool. I use their compilers all the time.
AND they are coming out with a Linux compiler! w00t.
Re:QBASIC is the first language. (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe if the schools were better you could count them.
It might be better to pick up a language that is more commonly used though. For instance C would be a decent language. Once you learn the simple IO libraries you can do some fun stuff. You can then learn about all the basics of programming like flow control, functions and such.
Re:QBasic (Score:3, Informative)
From there, the only lines that actually still needed their numbers were the lines that were called by name in a GOSUB or GOTO line, and there was no reason to limit the "line number" to numerics so the Line Label of any text you wanted was created instead. QBasic still supported numbered lines for nice legacy compatibility.
Re:Duh? (Score:4, Informative)
Tip: don't cook the macaroni in beer, but use the beer in the cheese and dairy mixture. Just heat it up in a saucepan (you can do this in the hot saucepan you just cooked the pasta in) and you have an excellent beer-cheese sauce. Reduce the amount of other liquid, of course, or your creation will be runny.
Stronger beers work better. Pretend pilseners like Bud will not be so good.
Remember: don't play with cheese sauce powder near an open flame. Unless you know what you are doing. And like setting things on fire. And second-degree burns. But only then.
QBasic is still used (Score:5, Informative)
The author claimed that it wasn't a QBasic application, but the error messages when it crashes tell a different story.
The QBasic integrated editor was a real joy, and it's hard to find a good, lightweight equal. Python [python.org] is too big, C++ [bloodshed.net] lacks the "fun" factor...
Lua [lua.org] with the SciTE [scintilla.org] editor comes close, if only it had builtin help.
I only stopped using QBasic after repeatedly running into the 32K memory barrier. I moved to Euphoria [rapideuphoria.com], a nice interpreted language. I missed the QBasic editor that I ended up writing a clone for Euphoria [rapideuphoria.com].
Heck, QBasic left such a mark that I ended up writing a Basic interpreter of my own [sourceforge.net].
Re:What is next (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Redundant??? (Score:3, Informative)
Ahh the arrogance of the ignorant.
Pascal beats your silly VB toy in every way imaginable. Go get Delphi [borland.com] , buy a good book on it, and learn something.
Absolute Beginner's Guide to QBASIC (Score:2, Informative)