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Programming Question | 326 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Programming Question
Authored by: scav on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 10:00 AM EST
One suggestion: rethink your reason for wanting to avoid learning to use a
programming language.

Thing is, nobody knows how to program in "BASIC" because there are
thousands of incompatible versions of it. Your previous experience with a
completely different version of BASIC may not be as useful as you think, and
any of the modern interpreted languages (Python, Ruby, Javascript) would
probably save you considerable time now and in the future, easily paying for
the effort of getting used to them.

And all of them are much more reliably cross-platform and backed by huge
helpful communities in a way that no version of BASIC has ever been.

---
The emperor, undaunted by overwhelming evidence that he had no clothes,
redoubled his siege of Antarctica to extort tribute from the penguins.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Programming Question
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 10:24 AM EST
Hi Wayne. There is a proprietary package RealBasic that allows you to do
personal development on either OS X Linux or Windows
for ~$100. If you want to compile for all three platforms it can get quite
expensive. I know it worked well on Macs a long time
ago, but can't give an opinion on later versions:
http://www.realsoftware.com/realstudio/

They do a web version for ~$600 that apparently works on "FireFox,
Chrome, Safari, IE7 and above, and IE6 with the Chrome
Frame extension" and iOS. You will need an Apache or IIS server. Don't
know if it will work on Android mobile clients. They also
list a number of providers that can host their applications...

Tim


[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Programming Question
Authored by: albert on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 10:53 AM EST
Wayne, scav may be right. I programmed in C and assembler for years, then
started using Visual Basic. It was by far the best BASIC ever. It's been
infected by the .NET crap, so I don't know what it's like now. Never found
anything it couldn't do. I wrote a complete generic machine control GUI in VB,
include PLC drivers, and drivers for special testing devices. It was
commercially successful, and very fast. Development is quick, and error
handling exceptional. AFAIK, there is no Linux equivalent. VB was one thing MS
got right, and their support was exceptional. Apparently there is no demand in
the Linux world for such a product, which is a shame. I would avoid Java like
the plague, though. I might look at Python...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

of all the languages in the world...
Authored by: mcinsand on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 11:38 AM EST
Wayne, What about FORTRAN? You used to use it, and it is free from many of the issues associated with BASIC. Someone already pointed out that BASIC has portability issues. In fact, BASIC is more of a family of languages that follow similar conventions. Think of Pascal, but moreso. The biggest problem that I see with using BASIC is an adverse impact on people that might otherwise be interested in the project. I have no doubt that you could develop your project with BASIC, just as I have no doubt that you could run an Internet server on Windows. However, the language has several inherent conventions that most programmers work to avoid, mainly having to do with variables and memory management. BASIC is truly the red-headed stepchild of the programming world, and I fear that people that would otherwise want to participate might move along when they see the language choice…moreso than if you used FORTRAN. I get where you’re coming from, though. My own modest project is starting, thought, and I understand your dilemma; I could stick with the language that I know, but staying with that language will cost in other ways. In my case, C would be the easy path, language-wise, but Microchip PIC assembly code is really better suited for the project. Good luck with your choice! mc

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Depends
Authored by: BJ on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 11:54 AM EST
What you're trying to accomplish.

Look at some 'hello world' programs in sh(1), Pascal,
C, Java, Python.

Afterwards, if still uncertain, drop a snippet from your
program here.

bjd

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Programming Question
Authored by: DannyB on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 12:37 PM EST
Thing is, the programming language I know best is Basic.

That is me in the early 1980's. Once I learned Pascal (and I'm not suggesting you learn that one) it was like the scales fall off my eyes. I had no idea of the limitations of Basic. Functions/Procedures each with their own variable name scope! (In Basic all variables are global.) Having primitives to create what C programmers would call "structs" and pointers, and then build data structures. Then combining recursion with powerful data structures.

All of these ideas are simple yet amazingly powerful.

Any number of modern languages have this power and much more. People will steer you towards their pet languages, but I won't do that. If you are looking for higher level abstraction away from the hardware, then I would steer you towards a variety of languages including (but not limited to) Python, Java, C#, JavaScript, Groovy, Scala, Clojure, and others -- each having various pros/cons. A key feature in these is the addition of Garbage Collection. A feature all modern high level languages share now. A key differentiator is whether variables are strongly or weakly typed. Both ways have pros/cons. Other powerful features in most higher level languages are functions as a first class type, or lambda functions, and also closures. If you learn how to use these properly, you'll wonder how you ever stuck with Basic.

If you are looking for lower level programming, closer to the hardware, and probably without Garbage Collection, yet still with vastly more abstract power than Basic, I would point you towards C or C++.

You will have to try them and evaluate them for yourself. But I promise you it will be more than worth your effort. Freeing yourself from the limitations of Basic and using a language that has a much larger community will pay off far more than your cost of choosing and learning new language(s).

You might want to pick a lower level language for performance and its closeness to the underlying hardware, AND also pick a higher level language for abstraction.

Like any good craftsman, the better of tools you use, and the more tools you can use, the easier your work will be, and the better the quality of the result.

---
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

starBASIC
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 01:00 PM EST
I apologise in advance for any silliness in this comment, not knowing what
exactly it is you feel an urge to compose.
But starBASIC, one of the languages used to script (or macro) the openOffice
family of productivity apps may (or may not) meet your needs.
openOffice runs on Windows and Linux, and may run on BSD/OsX.

Just a thought...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

  • starBASIC - Authored by: DannyB on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 02:35 PM EST
I also suggest python
Authored by: bugstomper on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 01:04 PM EST
I have programmed in at least 40 different languages and I agree with the people who are suggesting that it will be less work and more productive for you to get familiar with python than to fight with variants of Basic if you can even find them on all the platforms you want to write for.

While checking if python is really available for iOS I found this article in praise of something called pythonista. I'm not an iOS developer myself and haven't looked at pythonists, but the article is quite enthusiastic about it as not just a python development environment but also a way to add scripting workflow to his whole iOS experience:

Automating iOS: How Pythonista Changed My Workflow

Python is also available for Android as you can find by Googling for it. Googling will also find many places that freely offer tutorials and interactive courses to help you learn python programming.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Wayne, check this link
Authored by: cjk fossman on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 01:32 PM EST

Nothing more to say than this.

Yes, I use Python for commer$ial work. Clicky Link

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Wayne, try Appcelerator.com
Authored by: OpenSourceFTW on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 01:55 PM EST
Writing in Java will make the syntax similar for porting to Android.

However, the big catch is that you have to interface with a different set of
libraries for Android (with 1 semester of Java and many years of C-style
languages under my belt, I failed).

Learning a C style language is very beneficial, especially if said language is
Object Oriented. You can transition across C++/Java/C# and others without too
much trouble as needed.

However, you said this is a small projected, so you might try something like
Appcelerator's Titanium, which lets you do interfaces in HTML/Javascript and
the
backend in Python, Ruby, etc

I think it is Windows/Linux/Mac/iOS/Android compatible, but I could be wrong.

Check it out at http://www.appcelerator.com/.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Programming Question
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 02:56 PM EST
I would avoid anything Fruit. Why not to try Processing? It is java based, and I
know several people avoid java like the plage. With processing you can code for
linux, windows and android.

SALUDOS
ALVARO

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Nobody pointed Gambas yet
Authored by: marcosdumay on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 04:20 PM EST
Well, nobody pointed you at Gambas yet, so... it's worth a look.

Anyway, I agree with the chorus of people telling you to learn Python.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

ScriptBasic
Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 04:31 PM EST
Will likely do what you want on all of the
platforms you mentioned.

<http://www.scriptbasic.org/forum/index.php%3ftopic=249.0>


---

You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

Programming Question
Authored by: caecer on Wednesday, January 30 2013 @ 10:17 PM EST
If you decide to stay with Fortran, I can recommend using the Photran/Eclipse
IDE for easy cross-platform working (install minGW on Windows to get GCC &
make). I recently had to do some Windows + Linux Fortran programming after a
substantial lapse (probably 20+ years), primarily working with Delphi in
between, and found the Photran IDE very familiar and easy to learn and use.
Moving to Fortran 90 or later from Fortran 77 is relatively straightforward if
you have had any experience with reasonably modern languages.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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