i recently found the following program for windows, Pcbasic. sourceforge.net/projects/pcbasic/ it's a no hassle GW-BASIC emulator for windows. put all the files in a directory, create shortcut on desktop to the .exe boom, done. i've been scouring the web for some BASIC programs, and most must be compiled (typed in and ran) before they can be used. some GW-BASIC programs can be run by dragging them to the shortcut. anyway, this thread is all about Pc basic/ gw-basic, kudos to the authors. all of the attached files must be compiled and they were written a very long time ago, before GW-basic ever appeared on the scene. a word of caution, i doubt if ANY of these has been debugged on GW basic. so, immediately save the program as soon as you get it typed in, THEN AND ONLY THEN run it. some of these are quite good: animal for one, this program is a true rudimentary AI. awari is another.
concerning the above attached files: open the zip folder. drag desired file to desktop. drag THAT file to the executable. Pc basic opens with the file loaded and running. it's highly likely that these programs have bugs. most can probably be improved. i got the files from a website for free, i would imagine that they are non copyrighted.
it had to happen . . . if you try to use the included gw basic executable you will need dos box to do so. drag the .BAS file to pcbasic instead. i just found this last night, along with an apple 2e emulator. since the file was written for gwbasic i can't gaurentee it will work on pcbasic. accessing com ports for example. anyway, it might give you something to do, and it gives me a chance to get a lot of basic files in one place.
here are 2 more. the pictro4 file came from my DOOM folder. it was originally a web page with the listing. i selected all the contents and dropped them into a notepad window. i then removed all the stuff not related to the basic file, i suppose they were HTML tags. i was left with a listing with no line numbers, Pcbasic will not run programs without line numbers. Pcbasic also doesn't have a "do" or "end if" command so i'll have to come up with a work around for that. as you can see, i'm in the process of adding the line numbers.
the ability to drag and drop files onto the shortcut is a godsend. the ability to run programs from notepad likewise. some programs, the SFC folder below, will not run properly unless they are in the same folder as the executable. you have to copy all of the contents of the SFC folder to the same folder as Pcbasic. don't ask me what to do if a file already exists, i guess rename the old file with an .XXX extension. anyway, here's 39 more.
i like this Pcbasic program, but it's slow. it runs well in a window and you can drag and drop programs onto the shortcut. i've completed the stringart program except for some minor adjustments: getting the triangular shape to return to zero. getting the waveshapes centered on the screen. other than that, the only thing needs be done is faster execution. enter GW-basic, the real mccoy. execution times are at least 10 times faster and gives the designs a sort of psychedelic look, something that wasn't apparent with Pcbasic. anyway, here it is, 31 logical lines with 57 commands. a nice, tight, program that can generate some really amazing designs.
This is like Linux, in that it gives you a sense of achievement, but what have you achieved by running this program? Other than getting it to run?
the program was initially intended to simulate a spirograph set. what have i achieved? well, i put a box full of gears into something a computer can understand. i've since added the capability to "add" gears. and to use other than "round" gears. getting the designs to display properly takes trial and error. i guess i've achieved keeping my brain active, plus i've seen some really interesting designs emerge from my little program. it's still not complete.
But the gears do not take you anywhere, and a spirograph, is a toy that I actually might still have in my attic somewhere, but it's useless, and should be relegated to toy heaven. What you are doing is like tinkering with Linux, it's fun and gives a sense of achievement, until you see that you need to install a windows emulator, which at this point Linux becomes just plain goofy.
i've managed to find a GWbasic emulator for windows, Pcbasic. unzip all the files to a directory and create a shortcut to the executable on your desktop. you can drag/drop files to the shortcut to run them. runs in a window and can be minimized you don't need to "install" anything. you don't need a printer, you can output the compiled listing to notepad in human readable format. actually a pretty good program.
You can unzip probably millions of programs, that do nothing well. I take photos, look at them in windows, and edit the best in Photoshop. I had Gimp under gnome I think it was, and it was just dumb, but then you can't complain about free, can you. The thing is you are playing, which is fine, but you are playing with old stuff, jees, if you need a DOS, emulator, it's nonsense.
old stuff? i believe the SR-71 is old, and it probably still holds airspeed records. the pyramids are old, and left us with a 5000 year old riddle. basic is old, but it's one lean mean programming language, 78 KB. the only real beef i have with Pcbasic is that it doesn't implement machine code and the random number generator sucks. you have to use 2 different commands to get a halfast pseudo random number. my coco apparently had a "white noise" source for its random numbers.
And you are going to use this programming language to do, what? SR 71 records are still held, because the new craft are at area 52, which if I told you the location of, I would disappear before the post entered the net. Ask yourself how? The pyramids were built by slaves, no mystery there, but people want to believe. PS. No do not ask me about area 52......
all of the following files were downloaded from the internet archive. most were written by radio hams for the IBM PC using basic. here's a link to the source: https://archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype:"software" AND (IBM BASIC) edit: the link doesn't work right but its copy pasted from the source page.
i found a stand alone GW basic interpreter that will run from your desktop. there are a few problems with it though. it employs assembly language execution. this can cause unknown effects if used for assembler. DO NOT use this program for assembler unless you have a memory map of your machine. second, the app opens in a window which cannot be resized. typing "screen 9" will give full screen. you might need to adjust your monitor settings. the program can't be stopped by windows. ctrl+scroll lock will break program execution and return you to the command line. typing in "system" will close the program and return you to windows. Pcbasic has none of the above "problems" but its a 3.2 meg file with several support files. all of these files must be in the same directory. GW basic is a stand alone 78KB file. i've included the help file from Pcbasic, opens with notepad. i have some GW basic manuals but they are too large to upload.
here are 36 more. all of these were downloaded from the internet archive. i haven't tested any of these. EDIT: EWWW, after checking some of these out i've decided it wasn't worth my time downloading them. most of these will require an almost complete rewrite. but hey, some people like a challenge.
i've written a prime number generator to compare execution speed of Pcbasic and GWbasic. the test program starts at 1000000 and i let the program run for 2 minutes. Pcbasic tested 213 numbers. GWbasic tested 151,399 in the same time frame (2 minutes). that's about 1261 per second.
in a discussion about faked moon landings i posted a link that contains qbasic programs for simulating the mission. i can't find the thread but here is a link to one of the source pages: www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2104/2104article13.htm unfortunately these programs will not run in Pcbasic or GWbasic. i did however find a qbasic applet that will run them.
i found a compressed msdos 5 folder in an .iso file i downloaded from the archive. included is a webpage that is protected by a password. is there a default password that microsoft used for such things? i've already tried password.
