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Newsgroups: misc.kids.computer
Subject: Re: Kid's programming??
From: gregorfa@delphi.com
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 96 07:01:32 -0500
QBASIC PROGRAMMING FOR KIDS 1/96
The QBasic interpreter included with DOS can provide a tool for
beginning programming that can be extended fairly far. It can
give kids programming fundamentals while letting them "control"
the computer and have fun. Good programming practice and logic
skills can be learned and applied.
QBASIC INTERPRETER
If you have a PC, you probably have QBASIC. You can easily find
out. Get to an MS DOS prompt and type QBASIC. Odds are good that
this will run the Microsoft QBasic interpreter. You can now
enter and run a QBASIC program. (Skip the rest of this section
if you're not interested in actually making a sample program now.)
There is a "Survial Guide" and help for all of the commands.
Enter escape to leave the survival guide. Type - PRINT
"Hello World" . Enter ALT R and then S. Hello World" will print
on your screen. QBasic has "interpreted" and carried out your
instructions. Type ALT F X to leave the QBasic environment.
As another example, enter the following in notepad and save as
SAMPLE.BAS.
DIM name$(15)
CLS
PRINT "What is your name";
INPUT name$
COLOR 4
PRINT
PRINT "Hello "; name$
SYSTEM
Then from a DOS prompt (a DOS window in Windows is fine) type:
qbasic /run sample.bas
LEARNING QBASIC
The help system included in QBASIC describes all of the commands
and has many examples. Combine that with some other examples or
a beginning text for BASIC and you can quickly be on your way.
QBASIC BOOKS FOR KIDS
One reference specifically for getting started with kids and one
for simple games oriented programming that kids can have fun with
are:
"Building with BASIC: A Programming Kit for Kids", Gayle
Arthur, Alpha Books, ISBN 0-672-30057-5. Uses QBasic to cover
some programming skills including simple graphics and sound.
Has examples that are included on a disk. The author's 9 year-old
daughter is credited as co-author. Lot of activities and
explanations, all oriented to kids.
"QBASIC Games & More", Fred Sexton, Que, ISBN 1-56529-231-6.
Uses QBASIC to build several games including a matching game,
a pong-like game and more. All examples are included on a disk.
Also includes a special program to let you do things like control
a mouse with QBasic. The flying pigs screen saver will be fun
for the younger kids.
The first book can be used as the starting place for kids's
programming. The second should be used with some other learning
experience for the language.
INTRODUCTORY TEXTS
There are LOTS of introductory QBasic books. Your local large
bookstore may have several. MS Press has titles in QBasic as do
SAMS and QUE and others. Some titles are getting a little old and
some are fairly recent. A keyword lookup in Books in Print on QBASIC
will give about a dozen titles.
"Teach Yourself QBASIC in 21 Days", Shammas, SAMS, ISBN 0-672-30324-8
is a title in that publisher's 21 day series and an approach that will
work for some people. If you have the opportunity, find a text that
seems to make sense for you.
If you don't have easy access to a larger bookstore you can telnet to
books.com and browse under the keyword QBASIC for titles carried by that
on-line supplier. I'm not sure that they yet ship international - ask.
SAMPLE PROGRAMS
Many of the beginning references will have sample programs available
on companion disks.
Many publishers maintain web pages with easily available files from their
programming titles including QBasic.
Posts to the newsgroups below may get some samples. The FAQ below has
several samples.
The web archive sites given below also have many samples.
COMPILERS
Microsoft QuickBASIC is a BASIC compiler and linker. The interface is
much like QBASIC. When you are done, however, you will have a .exe file
that will run by itself and can be loaded an run on any PC. The product
was packaged as a book with a disk inside. I do not believe it is still
being manufactured. You can still find it in some stores. Programming
specialty shops also have copies. It is expensive.
Any programs that QBasic ran can be compiled by QuickBASIC into an exe
file that can be installed and run on another computer. They will also
run a lot faster.
There are other commercial and freeware BASIC compilers available as well.
Some offer educational discounts. Post in the newsgroup below for
more info.
PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT
QuickBASIC provides a complete environment in the DOS world of the the
traditional compile, link, execute programming cycle. Both QBASIC and
QuickBASIC support calls to other language subroutines including
assembler language. DOS interrupts can be accessed. Modular, structured
programming techniques can certainly be applied. Object oriented work
can be done, but very indirectly through data structure design and
calling methods.
Many specialized libraries including those available on the internet
have calling examples in QuickBASIC.
There are some specialized texts dealing with advanced techniques.
Some are getting old. One that is particularly slanted toward
assembler interface and DOS calls is:
"Advanced BASIC", Steven Holzner and The Peter Norton Computer Group,
Brady Publishing, ISBN 0-13-658758-5.
Once the techniques are known of accessing these in QuickBASIC, texts
devoted to just those topics can be used instead.
Microsoft published the "Mircrosoft QuickBASIC Programmer's Toolbox"
containing over 250 subroutines on a wide range of topics. The book
and the companion disk (more useful than the book) may still be available.
You should check with Misrosoft Press, not Microsoft. 1 800 MSPRESS.
COMPREHENSIVE REFERENCE
If you do want a real, serious reference for QBasic (and QuickBASIC) I
recommend the Waite Group's "Microsoft QuickBASIC Bible", ISBN
1-55615-262-0. It's 939 pages will tell you more than you want to know
about all of the language - QBASIC and QuickBASIC.
NEWSGROUPS
There are two news groups for BASIC programmers - comp.lang.basic.misc
and alt.lang.basic. You can get lots of information by posting there.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A list of frequently asked questions about BASIC can be obtained by
sending email to basicfaq at blissinx.demon.co.uk with send-me-faq as
the subject. Using send-me-code as the subject will get sample code
files.
MAILING LISTS AND USER GROUPS
There are also from time to time mailing lists and there may be a
local user groups in your area. A post to the newgroups is a good
way to get the current status of those.
ARCHIVE SITES
There is an FTP site that has some QBASIC related files--
oak.oakland.edu. Look in the simtel/qbasic directory. They are mostly
utilities and many of them are only for QuickBASIC, but you might find
something interesting there. Look in the programming sections
for libraries as well.
www.jumbo.com is a large shareware site. Look under programming/dos/basic.
You'll find programs, libraries, compilers, interpreters and tutorials.
The games programming ftp site ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/msdos/programming
is also a resource. Look under
pub/msdos/programming.
Microsoft's ftp site can be used to access the Knowledge Base for entries
relative to QBasic. You kind of have to browse or know what you are
looking for.
NEXT STEP
SAMS published "QBasic to C" which lists fundamental programming
operations in QBAsic and then describes how to accomplish them in C
(C is another programming language). This may be useful for some and
provides a foundation to go on to C++ (another programming language,
object oriented).
Good luck, have fun! I hope this helps.
Please send additions, corrections, suggestions to gregorfa@delphi.com