ENGT 1050 Computers for Engineering Technology

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ENGT 1050Computers for Engineering Technology

• Professor Dan Solarek

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Lesson Objectives

• By the end of this lesson, you should be able to
• Provide a definition of the term BASIC
• Describe the history of BASIC
• Identify the various versions of BASIC that have
  been popular over the years
• Describe the differences between QBASIC and
  QuickBASIC

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Definition of BASIC

• BASIC (stands for Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic
  Instruction Code)
• developed at Dartmouth College in 1964
• designers wished it to be a stepping-stone for
  students to learn one of the more powerful
  languages such as FORTRAN or ALGOL

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History of BASIC
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History of BASIC (continued)
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History of BASIC (continued)
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GW-BASIC

• Published by Microsoft
• Available with DOS 4.0 and earlier
• Not structured
• Required line numbers
• No subroutines
• No user-defined functions

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QBasic

• Published by Microsoft
• Available with DOS 5.0 and newer (FREE)
• Version 1.1 (1992) is last available
• Line numbers optional
• Structured
• Subroutines
• User-defined functions

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QuickBASIC

• Published by Microsoft
• Available by purchase only
• Version 4.5 (1988) is the last available
• Syntax similar to QBasic
• Includes a compiler (for .EXE files)

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Visual Basic

• Published by Microsoft
• Available by purchase only
• Version 6.0 (1998) is the last available
• Syntax of code is similar to QBasic
• Includes a compiler (for .EXE files)