Galactic Electronics Software

BASIC interpreter for Windows.

This is a BASIC interpreter that I have written for Windows and is a free download. So many of you may ask, "Why a BASIC interpreter ?". Well, there are several reasons I wrote this software. One is simply because I have always wanted to. Another reason is that I have always appreciated the immediate mode feature in BASIC interpreters. Immediate mode hasn't been available in Visual Basic for many years (if it ever was (?)) and I don't think QBASIC is packaged with Windows anymore. For those of you not familiar with immediate mode, immediate mode is where the BASIC interpreter will execute code fragments from the command prompt, without the code fragment being a part of a program and without having to be compiled. In fact, being an interpreter, the bASIC program is not compiled at all.

This BASIC interpreter is called "New Basic". Allthough it is a command line application, it utilizes some Windows features, like registry access and message boxes. For those of you with software development experience - The application was written in C++ using MS Visual Studio 6.0. The Win32 sub-system was utilized instead of MFC.

The dialect of BASIC used in New Basic is very similar to GWBASIC that shipped with DOS machines many years ago. There are some differences and these are described in the user's manual.

New Basic has been tested only on a limited variety of operating systems - Windows 98 and XP. I'm not sure if it will work properly when run from Windows Vista.

Now, here's the disclaimer part : "I take no responsibility for damage done to any computer, data or software from the use of the New Basic, BASIC interpreter." Now that the disclaimer is out of the way - The New Basic software is very safe and won't damage your computer, data or software due to any malfunction of the software. It doesn't contain nor can propagate software viruses. I have been a professional software developer since 1990 so I can say this with absolute confidence. Now, the New Basic interpreter offers the user the ability to delete files so be careful of what you delete. Also, New Basic allows the user access to the Windows registry (if the user has permission through security) so be careful with the registry. New Basic does not offer the ability to delete anything in the registry for safety purposes. For those of you not familiar with the Windows registry, deleting information in the registry has the potential to render Windows in-operative.

New Basic is packaged in a WinZip file named "NewBasic.ZIP". The package contains nBasic.exe, nBasic.ini, the user's manual, NBI.doc (a Word 97 file) and some sample BASIC programs, which have a NBS extension. The other miscellaneous files are used by the sample programs. To download the zip package, just right click the New Basic link below and select "Save Target As".

New Basic

Send questions, comments and bug reports to : WireHead@GalacticElectronics.com

(c) Jon Qualey, March 2007

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