Just BASIC 1.0 Beta 2 Released

Xampper writes "Just BASIC beta candidate 2 has just been released, and can be found at the JB website. The programming language is based on the popular Liberty BASIC language, and is a slightly watered down, but free, version. Standalone executables can be made, and the language is easy to grasp, especially for beginners." (Note, this is a Windows-specific language.)

Comments

RealBasic - visual basic that doesn't suck

[WasterDave]

I used RealBasic for a project a couple of months ago and can assure you that it rules, thoroughly. A quick feature list:

• Like Visual Basic but without the sucky bits
• Appears to be a p-code language, will deploy to Mac (both kinds), Linux (gtk) or the other OS
• Will remotely debug across platforms too
• Proper, modern OO language
• Astounding UI with the best tab completion ever

So, it's not "free" in any meaning of the word, and is actually kinda expensive. But falls into the "if your time has any value" thing really quickly, especially if you want to produce something where performance is no biggie but getting a cross platform application bashed together for low cost is.

Dave

Whom the gods would destroy

[Crashmarik]

They first teach basic.

Seriously is there any use for this except as a teaching tool ? If thats the only use isn't it an incredibly bad idea ?

There are plenty of great languages that can be learned quickly, teach fundamental computer science painlessly and are free. PERL, PYTHON, LOGO, if you r'e anal all the Pascal variants. These not only serve the purpose of allowing programs to be written but they painlessly impart good technique.

Re:Whom the gods would destroy

[Zaak]

Never messed with Python, but I agree that it would probably be better to throw students right in the deep end and get them coding in C.

The trouble with teaching C first is that there are many things about C which are not good for newbies. For example, how long would it take for you to explain the following C program to a person who knew nothing about programming?

#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
printf("Hello, World!\n");
return 0;
}

Now, how long would it take to explain the following Python program to the same person?

print "Hello, World!"

Granted, the C example could be made simpler, but only at the expense of leaving out things which really belong there in a real program. The Python example is complete as is.

There are some domains where C is still the correct choice, but teaching programming is not one of them. C does not reward as many bad habits as BASIC, but it does make the programmer worry about things that beginning programmers shouldn't have to think about. There are many other reasons Python is a better language for teaching programming, but I'll leave it at that for now. I recommend you look into it. Most people who do are glad they did. :)

The biggest reason being to teach them structure. BASIC breeds spaghetti coders.

Amen to that.

TTFN

Re:Learn Python instead.

[MadChicken]

Uh, lack of pointers is a *bad* thing somehow??? And remember Basic != BASIC... Try loading up a C# program in SharpDevelop and running the "Convert to VB" option... it's just syntax.

Maybe you're so grumpy because some people can actually make money programming in VB? Modern commercial development is hugely VB based. If you said modern ACADEMIC development, I might have had *some* respect for everything else you said. VB up to V6 is a kludgy, clumsy language. VB.NET is considerably different -- it had to be to survive.

I'd still vote for Java for a first language. You actually learn things you will use in later development.

Re:Nice

[Mr. Slippery]

BASIC (at least from my day) is not a great learning language...There are only subroutines, no procedures or functions. There are no proper control structures, only IF THEN GOTO.

That's exactly what makes it a great learning language. Write a medium-sized BASIC program and you learn why exactly more complex control structures and subroutines are desirable. It's one thing to talk about spaghetti code, it's another to have to try to untangle it.

(A GOSUB is a type of procedure, BTW, and BASIC also has the FOR...NEXT loop.)