QuickBasic Cafe Forum

I recently decided to learn Q Basic because I figured that was just about the most basic language out there to start on. However, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I thought that I coulkd just type the commands into DOS but realized that i can't do that. The reason I thought so is because my friend made a quick program showing me what he learned on a school computer (he didn't install anything on it). I am now thinking that he did or that the administrators at the school did. So off I go to try to find the Q Basic compiler...Nothing works. I downloaded four different versions from different sites and none worked. Do I need to download some kind of program OTHER than a compiler? Is there a version known to work on XP? I have XP and have heard some rumors that it doesn't work on XP. I then downloaded one that was said to work on XP made from the DOSBOX team (or something like that).

Bottom line is that I want to start programming in Q Basic and learning. I have found various tutorials that are of great help and I have been learning quite a bit and am hyped up on different programs I am planning on making. The only thing is that I don't know where to write the code or what to do with it or where to find something that compiles it...I'm totally lost. Please help I am not just going to give up but asking experts is really the last thing that I haven't done yet. Thanks a lot for everything.

QB or QuickBasic has an ide (editor) similar to (actually portions used for
both) the MS-DOS editor.

That is where you type in the "commands" and "statements".
Then you save it (File>Save) and it will ask for a file name if needed.

From the ide, you can press F5 to run the program. (if you are compiling the program, you can test it first this way).

To compile the program, select Run>Compile (if you don't have this
option then you probably have Qbasic and not QuickBasic - Qbasic has not compiler with it).

After selecting Run>Compile from the menu, press enter unless you want
to compile the program under a different name.

Once you have compiled the program, you can run the program from the command prompt (or from a pif file - MS-DOS version of a desktop link).

Now, if you compiled the program as a stand-alone then you can put the program anywhere and run it (for the most part).

If you compiled it requiring brun45 (or brun71 etc) then the brun??.exe will
need to be in the same directory (folder) as the program.

example:
(program)
PRINT "HELLO"
saved as hello.bas
compiled as hello.exe
now from the prompt
QB>hello
should print
HELLO
on the screen then end

Alright thanks, that helps a lot. Now however I would like to know where I could find the ide...I have tried a lot of stuff and notihng seems to work... but do you know where a god version of it is where i can download it?

Click on Compilers in the left hand panel of the Home Page or Login screen and download QB 4.5, you will see it's mentioned as "The best one"

The file you download is in .zip format so you will need an decompression prog to unzip it. WinZip is the favorite. I suggest you create a new folder and name it QB or QB4.5 or something like that to unzip the files into.

When you run QBasic use the /l option to ensure that the Qlb library is loaded (qb.exe /l).

Good luck & welcome to the mad mad world of Qbasic programming.