BASIC interpreter for RedHat 9.0?

WindsorKnot · 02-23-2007, 07:07 PM

This might be the weekend when I finally and omigod like totally install Linux on my Tecra 8000 (I seem to have accidentally erased some ultracrucial "VMM.vxd" file or something so suddenly Win98 won't boot. I'm choked up).

Some lady on the xtremevbtalk forums has an 11-year-old who is enjoying some "programmable Legos" tchotchke and she asked what's the best language for him to start with on actual programming. Naturally the legions of Gates' Minions who populate that forum all pushed heavily toward VB; and it made me wonder what other BASICs are out there. When I was a kid we learned LOGO on an Apple II in our classrooms. I've heard that Pascal was the official Beginner's Programming Language for a long time as well. Yet I also read that not only is BASIC still around, but parts of VMS itself (the bestest, stablest, robustestest operating system EVER) was even written partially in BASIC.

So what simple folk's languages are available for Linux? Any of them as pre-compiled binaries? Or, is compiling (and linking and assembling and whatever else you open sourcies do) not as big a challenge as I fear?

Thanx,

stuey

billymayday · 02-23-2007, 07:23 PM

have you tried the RH package manager. On FC5 there seems to be a perl based Basic intepreter, and I did see a PLD basic rpm at rpmfind.net

bigrigdriver · 02-23-2007, 10:17 PM

I'd suggest that you become good friends with www.google.com/linux for researching Linux issues.

In the realm of Basic language programming, there are: Qbasic, wxBasic, StarBasic (from Sun, comes with StarOffice), sbasic (same as StarBasic basically, and comes with OpenOffice.org). I've also read recently that there is now a Visual Basic interpreter for Linux, capable of generating code that runs of both Linux and Windows (though I may have mis-read that news item).

There are probably other versions of Basic as well.

dtjohnst · 02-23-2007, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigrigdriver

I'd suggest that you become good friends with www.google.com/linux for researching Linux issues.

In the realm of Basic language programming, there are: Qbasic, wxBasic, StarBasic (from Sun, comes with StarOffice), sbasic (same as StarBasic basically, and comes with OpenOffice.org). I've also read recently that there is now a Visual Basic interpreter for Linux, capable of generating code that runs of both Linux and Windows (though I may have mis-read that news item).

There are probably other versions of Basic as well.

I think Pascal WAS the benchmark for all beginner programmers, but at a more advanced level. I think it's being replaced with Java now though (at least it is at my old High School and University), but at 11, Java would be too much reading and research. I'd go with QBasic, lets of people got their start on it and you can do a ton with it.