Why the hate on QBasic?

[AFB]

There is so much hate. Why is it so bad?

<= Never used it

 

[Smilin]

Line number based and promotes really crappy top-down programming practices. It makes transition to better languages very difficult. It uses Goto's but not pointers. Very limited procedures/functions. Global instead of scoped local variables.

It's just really aweful and too many high school teachers wrongly use it as an intro to programming.

 

[sandorski]

Basic in general sucks, though Visual Basic was an improvement, though mostly for it's ease of use and not the Language itself.

 

[kamper]

Can you write anything useful with QBasic? I mean, from what (little) I've seen of it, you couldn't possibly distribute a program written with it or even derive much personal benefit from any program (other than simple games maybe). Someone tell me if I'm wrong though, can you actually produce some sort of executable?
It was my intro to programming, though, and I didn't mind it. I think I actually learned more from it than from the Visual Basic stuff I learned next (thankfully those days are long gone )

 

[drag]

Qbasic is ok as far as a learning programming language goes, but there are much better ones that are easy to pick up and learn that are much more interesting.

Take Python for instance. It's has a relatively simply syntax, but instead of the obsolete gotos you have loops, it's object oriented, easy to use variables, and functions to deal with, but you don't have to mess around at all with memory management and whatnot.. What you learn when you learn python is directly aplicable to most modern programming langauges.

You can even use it as a prototype language for building in other applications, you can take python code and with some judicious editing turn it into C++ code...

Plus you can use it to build actual usefull stuff, gui apps, scriptable tools, SQL database tools, network tools and applications. Anything you can make with any other language you can make with Python.

Plus it's named after Monte Python's Flying Circus. On that fact alone you have a very cool language.

Qbasic on the other hand has just outlived it's possible usefullness, unless your planning on programming in JCL or something like that. :roll:

 

[DaveSimmons]

Because QuickBasic and the Basic PDS were so much better.

 

[BFG10K]

Basically it's because it's obsolete. Also it's interpreted which means you can't distribute executables from it.

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Basically it's because it's obsolete. Also it's interpreted which means you can't distribute executables from it.

So is PHP, but people sell PHP &amp; ASP scripts.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Basically it's because it's obsolete. Also it's interpreted which means you can't distribute executables from it.

So is PHP, but people sell PHP &amp; ASP scripts.

Where did he say anything about selling?

 

[Schadenfroh]

10 SCREEN 1
20 FOR X = 1 TO 60
30 COLOR 1 , X
40 NEXT X
GOTO 10

 

[Megadeth]

I thought that Qbasic 4.5 had the ability to compile to executable files....
I thought I saw once that there was a QBasic 7.x or something along those lines.....


Anyonehere ever use DarkBasic? I had heard a little about it but never took the time to look at it... I also Had heard a lot about RUBY but again never took the time to look at that.

Smilin is right about making the transition to more advanced laguages harder.... I had a real hard time when I was taking Java and C++ classes in college.... I was still trying to do things like I would in QBasic. As it is, I found out I dislike programming anyways. (Maybe that's a direct result of starting with QBasic)

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: MegadethAs it is, I found out I dislike programming anyways. (Maybe that's a direct result of starting with QBasic)

In my experience, it doesn't really matter what you start with.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: MegadethAs it is, I found out I dislike programming anyways. (Maybe that's a direct result of starting with QBasic)

In my experience, it doesn't really matter what you start with.

What if he started with one of those assembly languages that are just barely one level of abstraction above pure assembly?

 

[AFB]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Basically it's because it's obsolete. Also it's interpreted which means you can't distribute executables from it.

So is PHP, but people sell PHP &amp; ASP scripts.

Where did he say anything about selling?

You know I meant distribute

 

[Armitage]

QBasic is crap, even as a teaching language. Now, with stuff like Python out there, there's no excuse to still use it, except that's what the teachers know and have lesson material for :roll:

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: amdfanboy

Originally posted by: BFG10K
Basically it's because it's obsolete. Also it's interpreted which means you can't distribute executables from it.

So is PHP, but people sell PHP &amp; ASP scripts.

Where did he say anything about selling?

You know I meant distribute

That still doesn't make any sense. So people distribute PHP and ASP scripts; so what? QBasic still can't build standalone executables.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: torpid
What if he started with one of those assembly languages that are just barely one level of abstraction above pure assembly?

They'd probably think, "Hm, this is kinda cool, but is way too much work for the given result, so I think I'll learn a language that I can be more productive with." Anyone that really enjoys programming enough to be really good at it is bound to find a way around any crappy language they're given at first. When I was playing with QBasic and VB, I knew that programming was really freaking cool. I still think it's really freaking cool. But I sure don't program in any sort of Basic anymore, nor do I have any desire to do so. I think there's something about programming in general that either attracts you or doesn't attract you. If it attracts you, then you'll keep at it, and you'll move beyond any crappy language you were given to start with. If it doesn't attract you AND you realize that, then you'll just stop programming and go pursue something that is more enjoyable for you. If it doesn't attract you but you don't realize it, then you'll keep programming and probably suck at it really badly.