try www.libertybasic.com lots of support windows ----- Original Message ----- From: "Russell McMahon" To: Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 6:08 AM Subject: Re: [OT] freeware/shareware basic for dos/windows? > > Is there a shareware or freeware version of basic for dos/windows? > > QBASIC interpreter runs under DOS or in a Windows DOS box (or equivalent) > and came with various flavours of MSDOS and is arguably essentially public > domain for any application running on Windows. > > Quick Basic is the compiling version which was sold by Microsoft but has not > been for many years. It makes stand alone EXE files. > It can no longer be bought new. Versionsare available for download from the > web although it is questionable whether Microsoft considers this legal. > (Remember the rule of thumb to use when wondering about such things: > Micro$oft consider they have perpetual and inalienable rights to everything > they have ever produced, much of what anyone has ever shown them, a fair bit > of what other people have produced and some of the stuff they have not yet > heard about. Their lawyers are working on redressing Micro$oft$ inequitable > position in such matters). ) > > FirstBASIC compiler from PowerBASIC Inc (USA) is a superset of Quick BASIC / > QBASIC. > (Also incidentally it's essentially identical to Borland's one time > TurboBASIC - they wrote it, sold it to Borland, and then bought the rights > from Borland when Borland decided not to continue it. Or, at least, that's > something like what they told me when I asked them why the code produced was > about a 90% match with Borland's product). It's actually quite reasonable > for what it's meant to do. > It is relatively cheap ($US50 - $US100?). They make many more capable and > more expensive products. > > All the above are capable of manipulating hardware from a DOS environment > and may be run under Windows as well. > > Visual BASIC is Microsoft's current Windows only product. > > XP / WIN2000 / NT will give you hassles with direct hardware access. > > > > Russell McMahon > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.