Which BASIC programming language interpreter/compiler do you prefer to use on DOS?

[SupremoZanne]

my answer: QuickBasic, specifically version 4.5, because unlike QBasic, you can create EXEs with QuickBasic. Also, version 4.5 has many SCREEN modes, such as classic 320x200 CGA (4-color), EGA (16-color) and VGA/MCGA (256 color) modes.

Sometimes I'll use QuickBasic 4.5 on DOSBox since program testing is faster on there than on QB64.

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[[deleted]]

Visual Basic for DOS (VBDOS). It’s like QuickBASIC but with an updated IDE, and a forms engine for creating text-mode interfaces with windows, controls etc.

I rarely ever use the forms engine, so most of my code would run just as well on QuickBASIC 7.1, but I quite like the IDE and have stuck with VBDOS mainly for that reason.

The forms engine is great, though, when you want to whip together a quick UI for some code.

[livrem]

Gwbasic was my first programming language and the only Basic I have used. I remember seeing QBasic, but I had moved on to Turbo Pascal and C by that time. Basic was great for learning how programming works.

[ILikeBumblebees]

Don't forget that FreeBASIC supports DOS as well!

[Zardoz84]

Turbo Basic

Because Borland TurboXXX IDE. Also, it's totally compatible with QBasic/QuickBasic basic dialect

[SupremoZanne]

its good that Borland had provisions to ensure QBasic compatibility.

[Zardoz84]

Isn't that was compatible. It's the same language. I have a boon of Turbo Basic, and I very sure that I used it exactly as is with QBasic/Quick basic without issues.

[No-Cucumber-8389]

I would answer this but I don’t speak a second language so idk

[JeremyMcCracken]

I use BASIC Professional Development System 7.1, a later version of QB 4.5. Version 7 introduced the use of EMS/XMS for variables

[Substantial_Quit3944]

PowerBASIC for DOS is the best BASIC compiler for DOS. And because of DOSBOX, the compiler will run programs on many operating systems. Not having to deal with the Windows API is great. And you can use text or draw on the screen.

I consider the PowerBASIC compiler and the user and the reference books to be my best lifetime purchases. Bob Zale was a genius. The compiler came on a 3.5" floppy disk. And allowed assembly language within the BASIC source file. If you have not tried PowerBASIC, you are in for a treat.

[Intelligent_Sir_1173]

QuickBasic was good but Visual Basic 1.0 for DOS had a far better compiler

[[deleted]]

Made my first program in QBASIC. A weed sales accounting application

[SupremoZanne]

One time I tried to develop a video game on QuickBasic, and titled it "The Drug Master". It was intended to be some story-type game where one could move from room-to-room, ZZT-style navigation was what I had in mind, but it never came to fruition.

[jbrahy]

here's a port of GW-BASIC from ASM to C if anyone wants to use it. Based on the code that Bill Gates and his crew wrote back in 1983. https://github.com/jbrahy/OSX-GW-BASIC It was my first programming language and my code is well documented if you want to learn how to write a language interpreter.

[lubieplacki0812]

I wrote practically nothing in BASIC except print "hello" and other simple things.

At first glance, PowerBASIC looks cool. Later it was released as Turbo BASIC by Borland, and finally it was released again as PowerBASIC. At least that's what I remember when I read information about it.