Windows XP & QBASIC

[pookeesha]

Hi-
I am completely new at programming. In fact, I haven't even started classes yet, just reading an old second-hand book on QBASIC. I've gotten to a part where it tells me how to get into QBASIC and how to write a sample program. At the DOS prompt, I typed in the command the book gave me and apparently my system does not seem to have QBASIC files at all. I tried both QBASIC and QBASIC.exe. Is there something I'm doing wrong or something I can download to get my computer to be compatible with what I'm trying to learn? Hopefully someone can help me out because I'm totally lost here. And please not too much technical wording. I can understand most but not a lot of it. Like I said I'm really new. :confused:

[Buff]

First search for Qbasic.exe on your computer.
Qbasic was included starting with DOS version 5.0 and was also on the Win95 and Win98(i think) CD-ROMs.

If you find it, be sure that either you are in the folder containing Qbasic.exe when you are at the prompt or that it in the Path. (type Path from the prompt to see the directories included).

If you don't find it, then you can get it from the internet. simply do a search for it from
any search engine. Many of the QuickBasic sites will either have it or a link to it.

[The Beholder]

Yes use a search engine like google and get Qbasic 4.5, its better than the qbasic that comes with dos or windows. You make programs that run outside the IDE

[icerogers]

i have been running q basic in xp for months, and rfecently, msdos will not run, i am getting the error message, 16bit msdos subsystem, and the file is not suitable for msdos or windows applications, any ideas

[HarryVanWoerden]

Try going to properties of QBX.exe, click memory, set EMS to None, everything else to Auto and check uses HMA. You don't set compatibility to windows 95 or 98, and you can check the "close on exit" (optional), and then click OK. The system automatically creates the qbx.pif file that has the same attributes.

You can double click on either qbx.exe or qbx.pif and it will load any size file which some people have had a problem with. These settings works for Qbasic or Qbx.

[khkwa]

For BASIC fans, you might want to take a look at

http://www.qbcafe.net/english/index.html?dl_pages/compiler/index.html~qbc_main

[ethveg]

In reply to the original post, let's distinguish between QBASIC and QuickBASIC.

I suggest strongly using the latter - if you're actually going to write programs to use you'll need features the former doesn't offer.

And yes, one form of Basic or another was built into most PC's when they were DOS based. But I think that ended with Windows 3.1 and it became necessary to install some version of BASIC on your own.

[Lucius]

Hi- I am completely new at programming. In fact, I haven't even started classes yet, just reading an old second-hand book on QBASIC. I've gotten to a part where it tells me how to get into QBASIC and how to write a sample program. At the DOS prompt, I typed in the command the book gave me and apparently my system does not seem to have QBASIC files at all. I tried both QBASIC and QBASIC.exe. Is there something I'm doing wrong or something I can download to get my computer to be compatible with what I'm trying to learn? Hopefully someone can help me out because I'm totally lost here. And please not too much technical wording. I can understand most but not a lot of it. Like I said I'm really new. :confused:

Did you eventually work out how to get into QBasic? I am in a similar situation as you were. Please help. :-|

[Comatose]

I'm guessing the problem is because QBasic is NOT installed. It came with older versions of Windows, and just about all DOS systems... however, with the advent of 2k and XP, I'm pretty sure that they don't have QBasic any more. I'm sure you can search around, and find a freeware version waiting for download out there somewhere..... try:
http://www.qbasic.com/frames.shtml , then click files, and compilers....

[MrConfused]

Quickbasic 4.5 for MSDOS was rather good - made me a lot of £. Hmm. I don't have any progs that won't run on my Windows XP home edition, though qbasic is even older. Qbasic was before Mr gates (who knows BASIC well, in fact that is what MSDOS was programed in all those years ago) had pushed his Co. to make BASIC (due to the retrospect obvious "make .exe option" a force to be reckoned with). Although some of the things M.Soft have done annoys me, pushing BASIC to the forefront of programing says a lot for Mr G. I expect the C++ lot will be annoyed, but it depends what you want to achieve.

[ethveg]

Yes. I've written in a number of languages and QuickBASIC (NOT the same as QBASIC) is my favorite for ease of use and intuitive structure.

Originally I needed to write some assembly code for moving data to/from the screen in real time, but that was back when CPU speeds were less than one-tenth of what they are now; with the faster processors I suspect that even word processors can be written using only BASIC functions and still run smoothly.

Especially for beginning programmers, I strongly recommend getting a copy of QuickBASIC 4.5 and one of the OLD "how to program in BASIC" books. With just those two items and few free days you can produce some remarkable stand-alone programs.

[ChrisH]

All Windows CDs and floppys before the Win XP version have QBasic hidden on them. Simply do a Search for QBasic -- don't forget to copy the Help files too.

The only problem I've had with running QuickBasic/QBasic on XP, is that is causes 100% CPU usage, due to some graphics management process that is activated by running QB, either version.

Very scarey to watch. :-|

[MrConfused]

QBasic is o.k for learning most of the modern VB code, but the help side is rubbish. Quickbasic 4.5 is better by far because of the fantastic syntax and other help. In fact in my opinion it was far better than the help you get with VB 5, which is what I use at the moment. When the compiled program is run the processor does go to 100%. I think all DOS programs have this effect when running under Windows. I don't know why. The trouble is it will cause other problems when run on a network. If your computer on the network is used to connect up a network printer for instance. If you are running your DOS program when someone tries to print through your computer they will have a very, very long wait (we are talking many hours if it prints at all). As soon as you close the DOS program the "bottleneck" is cleared and the print is done. Another problem is the 640K memory thing. When I wrote my program in Quickbasic 4.5 ten years ago just as I was about to finish it I hit the "out of memory" message. This was because the programming language plus my code was too much. Luckily you could unload some forms to get round it, but it was a real pain as lots of things were dependant on each other... Once compiled and run (so the prog. language was not using up it's 400K or so) there was no problem.

[jbennet]

I have 5 old msdos 3.1 disks . QBASIC is on the 5th. It came with an old Win 3.1 machine from late 80's / 90's. I could send it to you..

[ChrisH]

The 100% usage while running QBasic under Windows XP is caused by a program that is activated to handle old 16-bit DOS programs:

NT Virtual DOS Machine - ntvdm.exe

The NTVDM process simulates a 16-bit Windows environment complete with all of the DLLs called by 16-bit Windows applications.

This program supposedly gets removed by Win XP SP2, and Qbasic won't run at all, without it.

For those who like the ease of use of old QBasic, there is a modern 32-bit version called FreeBasic.

http://www.freebasic.net/

FB is a bit tricky to install and set up, but it is about 99% compatible with old programs written in any Qbasic version. Some of my QB programs, I simply cut-N-pasted into the FreeBasic IDE and they compiled and ran with no problem.

There ARE some differences to learn with FreeBasic over QBasic, but nothing too difficult. FreeBasic is a great alternative to trying to get QB programs created and running under Windows XP.

And the great thing is, FB is a 32-bit program and WILL NOT cause 100% CPU usage ! Free & Highly recommended ! :cheesy:

[jaedma]

I found in the documentation this:
********************************************
Why doesn't the QB GUI open when I start FreeBASIC ?
Where'd the blue screen go?
I double-click on fbc.exe and it doesn't open!
FreeBASIC is only a compiler, not a complete QuickBASIC clone. It is a
console mode application. It will accept a BAS file on the command line, and
spit out an EXE file.
There are a numbers of IDEs available for FreeBASIC , however. The easiest
way to get started with a full programming environment is to download the
excellent fbIDE+FreeBASIC package from This site--->

http://fbide.sourceforge.net/

*******************************************
and IT WORKS ON WINXP!!! , it seems like in the tutorial of Qbasic.... :)