I have my tiny share of a QBasic Story. Please read this with a light heart and don’t judge me.

I was introduced to Computers — as theories in school classes in the summer of 1992. By winter of 1993, my school got computers and I spent a lot of my time there, including many practices during the holidays.

I spend extra effort to learn things that were not taught in the school. I learnt QBasic and started writing tiny programs. My own trick was to use Graph Papers to match co-ordinates to plan game programs. One of them was a game where shapes are draw on the screen and you shoot it with an arrow. You have to hit spots on the shapes to do something - explode, write out names, etc.

I asked one of the girls to try it. She did and finally shoots a “heart” symbol and it burst with her name. I think I coded many things manually to make that happen and not very “programmatic”.

She became my first Girlfriend and we were for about a year. After that, we got drifted apart as we went to different schools in different states. No email, no phone.

I like BASIC and recently been thinking it might be nice to do some modern game dev on BASIC. My father got me into programming on a TI-99/4A [0] machine, so the BASIC language always has a place in my heart.

However, I recently also came across a nice game development course from Harvard, CS-50 [1] (an excellent course, much recommended!). And for CS-50 the Lua language is used in combination with the LÖVE [2] framework.

After previously dabbling with SpriteKit [3] and Swift I have to admit LÖVE has been extremely pleasurable and fun to use. It's really nice to get some quick results. And you can easily build for multiple platforms (iOS, macOS, Windows, Android, ...)

I also love that I'm able to develop just using SublimeText [4], a very lightweight editor and pretty serviceable for doing Lua dev ... no IDE required, just like BASIC.

It's a nice change of pace from the normal heavy-handed Xamarin (C#) / Xcode (Swift/Objective-C) dev that I do in my day-to-day work, making "boring" business apps.

---

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A

[1]: https://cs50.harvard.edu/games/2018/

[2]: https://love2d.org

[3]: https://developer.apple.com/spritekit/

[4]: https://www.sublimetext.com

Me and QB had so much fun together. I would come home from school, have something to eat and then get back to programming one of my dozens of game ideas that usually went nowhere near being completed.

I remember how I spent one Christmas plotting a Christmas Tree scene with the gifts and everything on millimeter paper and then transferring and animating all that to QB in SCREEN 11 (640x480) graphics mode. My parents weren’t that impressed, but I was so proud of myself.

I envy that kid sometimes.

I owe Basic a lot. It got me into programming on our first family pc, a Compaq Presario around '94. QBasic was accessible on every windows installation from the command prompt. You could read the programming guide built into the editor and have your first running code shortly after. That was its true power.

One of my first programs was teaching me french words, asking me to translate them in a random order until I got them all right. It was truly magical.

I also made pixels move, trying to write games, but I quickly ran into limitations and problems organizing my code. If you like a small challenge, watch a few minutes of this video about a game called Noita, where in the beginning Q-Basic was used to create some simple physic simulations [1].

It was hacky yes, but I think if you're starting out, it's much more important to get something running quickly than learning how to do it the right way. When people speak of basic, they always seem to have the impression that you're spoiled for life after touching it, but I think that's wrong. You can always learn more and improve. It's breaking down barriers of entry, which is key. A simple editor, with an inbuilt help page and a run button is all you need.

[1] https://youtu.be/prXuyMCgbTc?t=102

I wanted to make a classic BASIC interpreter for Repl.it, and as I was slowly evolving it -- making line numbers optional, adding labels etc -- I discovered that I was reinventing QBasic!

Docs: https://docs.repl.it/misc/basic

Source: https://repl.it/@amasad/pg-basic

Basic was, and still is, an excellent language for introduction to programming. Yes, there are things you shouldn't do, but that applies to every programming language.

There is nothing quite so simple, pure and fun as the older programming languages. Everything is a little bit bloated today - but it is infinitely much better when done right than you could ever do with these old languages.

for introduction, kudos! just mastering the branch/loop/return you have learned the basics of all programming.

A Commodore 64 emulator on a raspberry Pi connected to the family TV is what I used, with similar results. My boy was instantly programming and in awe of all the magic the words could weave. Boot straight into BASIC.

This one: https://cmaiolino.wordpress.com/

Qbasic was the easy step into programming, but it was with turbo-pascal that I had most fun. I still recall eagerly awaiting for the monthly magazine that brought a floppy disk with source code I could study and try. But the best part, in the IDE, was the documentation, every keyword had an easy to access text explanation and fully working example. Borland was really great at this, same happened with turbo-c.

But there’s definitely magic to Basic, from a sheet of paper with line numbered, easy to understand (closest to language), instructions you can copy into a simple ide, to immediate results. There’s no entry barrier.

Such a nice story to read, thanks op.

Promitive as it was, QBasic had the right mix of commands people wanted (drawing, colors, music, file access), with the immediacy of running and seeing where your errors were (stepping through code) to make many a beginner coder motivated enough to stay with it to learn and develop beyond. I'll always owe it a debt for being my outlet through my middle school years.

The warm feeling inside when I just see the word “QBasic”. Prior to QBasic I was always drawing and tinkering with physical objects. QBasic made me realize that computers are just an other canvas. One where you aren’t just a consumer but a tool that allows you to contribute, create art, build useful little programs and games (to play with my siblings during rainy days). As a 10yo then, it felt I could conquer the world. Magical tool.

Antirez (of Redis) made Load81[0] for this reason; I can recommend it; batteries included and modern. I did a lot of prototyping on it on the OpenPandora while traveling and a few of my friends said their kids picked it up as easily as they did Basic.

[0] https://github.com/antirez/load81

QBasic was so much fun. Also because pre Internet time, the included help for each command was so good.

Just the random number generator was no so good.

  SCREEN 12
   DO
    x = RND * 640
    y = RND * 480
    c = RND * 16
    r = RND
    PSET = (x,y),c
   LOOP

enjoy :-)

https://imgur.com/a/SSfaewf

BASIC is a good place to start, but so is Logo, and there are plenty of modern Logo interpreters such as https://turtlespaces.org

Must have been around 1997. My dad was in his 40s then and had never programmed or learned coding, but is a tinkerer at heart and used to love to make small IC devices after his day job (which was not related to technology at all). He learned it, loved it so much, and created so many nifty little pieces of software - a file encryption program, an alarm clock, a stop watch, tiny fun games etc. He used to be so excited to show me his programs (I was 7 or 8) and helped me to pick it up as well.

Later he started learning C++ to write more advanced programs, and although he did create some programs, I could see the complexity putting him off. Just the knowledge that that was the real programming, and that he was not enjoying it any more discouraged him, and he stopped coding altogether. It makes me sad. I wish he could have stuck with Basic and just created more cool stuff with it. There definitely is just something so cognitively easy about QBasic.

I will never forget the day that I spent debugging an early QBasic program that included a line similar to

  5 = x

for an assignment in the first draft. There were tears and deep frustration at the moment I discovered that assignment had a directionality. The author's story brings back so many memories of learning and growth.

For those too young to know -- magazines used to come with page-long Basic programs for games that you could type in, debug (there were always typos), and play.

    5 -> x

  x := 5

  x ⇐ 5

    x <= 5

    x <- 5

    set x to 5

    X = terminates?(P(1))

I got my first computer in 1995, but it wasn't until 1998 that a classmate told me about QBasic. I remember my first "program" was a text-based RPG, except I didn't know about variables so it was basically just a digital choose-your-own adventure book where I enumerated all possible outcomes. I must have written a few thousand lines before looking at some of the pre-written programs and the help manual and learned how foolish I was.

The next few years would be an escalating arms race among friends for who could make the coolest game, culminating with an extremely slow ray traced 3D shooter

I became pretty good at programming, but having matriculated into college in the early 2000s when software engineering was somewhat unpopular, I'm a physicist now. When my son gets a bit older QBasic might not be a bad starter language

The big advantage for using BASIC to teach young children is its concreteness. In my experience, some kids have trouble understanding nested blocks (for example in Python, why the stuff in an if block is different than the surrounding code). With BASIC and GOTO everything is explicit and concrete and at the same level. They just have to trace though the program one line at a time to understand it.

I must admit that I'm ever so happy to have seen this post, QBasic was massively important towards me becoming a programmer. Kudos for the post, it's important for me to know that my nieces and nephews might see computers the same way I did: through an uncomplicated lens.

The appeal for me was to give, as you wrote, a simple interface to programming. The Apple RAM II I had was not as easily accessible for programming at my single digit age. QBasic was available on the 486 SX based MS-DOS OS we had, and it opened my eyes. Within a year or two I was reading Herb Schildt' "Teach Yourself C" and using Borland C for the first time. But at a young age you need that first step to be accessible!

Nice one...

Not sure you are aware but there is a modern single board computer you can buy or build that boots to MMBasic which is a modern elegant and performant Basic heavily inspired by various Microsoft Basics.

The computer is called Colour Maximite 2 and has a small but devoted community that’s constantly improving the platform.

You can purchase CMM2 from a handful of vendors or make your own.

I highly recommend one for a kid that is starting to dabble with programming.

Kind of a homepage:

https://geoffg.net/maximite.html

8 bit guy review:

https://youtu.be/IA7REQxohV4

Scratch is also pretty good if you need to deal with many kids and can't have a prepared / common experience on devices. I introduced a group of ~12 to programming and the initial issue is that not all of them had consistent access to laptops, or much experience with longer typing.

Being able to start with any tablet was great for that group.

The post reminded me to look up a game called Black Annex, which was being developed by a solo developer in QB64.

A previous post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17164068

https://store.steampowered.com/app/248590/Black_Annex/

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2033318/black-annex-is-the-b...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqlveWIhCFI

Lance, if you see this thread - I hope you find the passion to continue this project. What you built so far was an incredible feat.

This is great.

I learned on Basic XE on an Atari XE, then GFA Basic (2, 3, and 3.5) on an ST. I still find reading Basic code to be considerably easier than most other "starter" languages. GFA was remarkable for its time, with its compiled code executing with performance rivaling some of the C compilers on the ST.

Hi, long time reader but never posted before. When I started working with computers in my first job in 96, I discovered QBasic. Then by just following a sample program on how to play music notes, I was able to make the PC play a custom song. What an exciting discovery! Too bad the program could only play beeps and didn't support polyphony. Then I think this was my first "hack" into programming: I created a version of the Christmas Carol "Joy to the World" that sounded like 4-part harmony by simply making the duration of each note comprising a chord to the be very very short, and then between notes (chords) I added a rest (silence) so I could distinguish each separate note from the melody. It sounded like arpeggios. Fun experience, but too time consuming.

I think that `20 GOTO 10` is the single best line of code to start programming with. It yields lots of thrill learning that you can repeat whatever you want.

If anyone was ever alarmed by the GOTO et al within BASIC, it's worth remembering that the 'B' stands for "Beginner's". I think the language serves an excellent role in firing the curiosity of an amateur, whether young or old.

Ca. 1990 I wrote an X.25 Network Integrity and Performance System (NIPS) in QBasic. It polled the PADS (Packet assembler/disassembler) for statistics, and displayed traffic and error conditions on the control monitor. Worked great.

I just bought ZX Spectrum Next issue 2 on Kickstarter. When I got it delivered my daughter turn 5. I think that it was good move, I also started with Speccy 33 years ago. Thanks to my dad which keep sitting next to me while I was trying to code I am a dev. I will not set the only way (my way), if she prefer taking care of animals or writing diaries I will not push her into STEM, but I will try to show her that having technical job pays off

What? Lock this man up for not teaching his son Haskell first!

I jest. People take the whole "imperative bad!" thing a little too far. I have fond memories of QBasic and certainly cut my teeth on it as a child. I did more TI-Basic on my graphing calculator since I could do that on the school bus. It can't have been too hazardous for my development since I independently rediscovered the idea of the "game loop" in my meddling.

I started with GW-BASIC on a PC. QBasic is so modern :D

Besides some Scratch early on I really got into programming in TI Basic on my graphing calculator and it was pretty great. Minimal learning curve to start writing useful programs, and sets you up well for high level languages. That being said I would probably still recommend Scratch for teaching kids to program, and Python for adults.

The weird thing about QBasic is that it came out in 1991, when Windows was already well established. So even though I started developing in the 90s, I immediately used Visual Basic and never even heard of QBasic for at least a decade or so later... maybe more. Lately there's been posts on HN reminiscing about QBasic, which is great, but it seems almost like a niche group of people who in the 90s were still using DOS a lot. (Which, granted, was a lot of people). But I completely missed it - it almost feels to me like it didn't exist and someone retconned history to add it in.

Now TRS-80 BASIC? Or Delphi? PowerBuilder? Or - wait for it - LotusScript? Now there's some languages to celebrate! (Joking, of course). I used all of them, the latter ones to make a living at one point or another.

I ran across http://www.hedycode.com/ which is another take on kid-friendly programming languages. I ran the first few examples and it looked interesting - plus it runs in a browser so no archeology needed :)

I learned programming via BASIC (not QBASIC, on a Modular One https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Computer_Technology_Limited)and I agree it is a great way to learn how to write code (look at all those little kids who used to dodge into WHSmiths in the UK and write small, rude programs!)

But the thing that always pissed me off was that it did not support proper functions (one-liners, yes) to the extent that I wrote a preprocessor in BASIC that did support them (rather badly).

One thing I have always stressed to the many people I have taught is "Write functions, write lots of functions, you cannot write too many functions!"

Logic is logic. If you learn logic in if then else, goto, gosub-return, it's all good. These are still basic building blocks of logic.

If you get the logic part of programming, you can pick up the more complex aspects.

I'll just leave this here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vDpzoYgNd0

Love it! I started out by manipulating simple games in qbasic. Then switched to Visual Basic and made my first serious yet small projects. In the meantime got into web design and always thought I was doing something wrong when creating a UI with HTML & co - so painful compared to the drag and drop UI creation in Visual Studio. Same when I've learned Java: UI creation was a nightmare. Sorry for going off rails...QBasic was just awesome!

I wonder why not qb64... ( https://www.qb64.org/portal/ )

I can't help but notice that many of those who breathlessly exclaim that starting with GOTO will cause brain damage started with GOTO themselves.

I also notice that, "I did [x] and ended up fine" doesn't seem to consider the possibility of ending up better than fine without doing [x]. Still, I greet these arguments with suspicion and find them somewhat self-destructing.

I learned to program from two QBASIC games that were on the school computers, Nibbles and Gorillas. My friends liked to watch me make mods for the games or code from scratch, so I was doing "live coding" from the beginning. I think it must have shaped the way I program, giving the mindset of explaining what you're doing and why as you go.

My first computer was a used 286 - no Windows, just WordPerfect, Oregon Trail, and QBasic. Between that and the TI Basic on my calculator it really cemented my love of code. (I had just taken a class in high school teaching Turbo Pascal; I grew up in a super poor family where everything was out of reach unless I put the pennies together myself)

At least QBasic gives you modern-style loops, no requirement for line numbers, etc.

It's a good starting point and it won't force bad habits on you. It's really too bad that Microsoft never managed to make VB.Net anywhere near as clean as QBasic/QuickBasic or the DOS version of VisualBasic.

QBasic was my first language, and I don't knock it for the purpose it served at the time, but for a new programmer, I'd point them at either JS (if they really want to do web things) or Python. BASIC had its time, there are better languages now, and that's ok.

Seeing this post and replies makes me feel like I'm part of a qbasic reunion, which had such a wonderful and enduring effect on me. Reading this article brought back that feeling of having my imagination captured and a whole world opening up to me.

I learned qbasic (my first programming langauge!) in middle school in 1999/2000. I guess our school district's shitty budget that resulted in seriously outdated computers did have some benefits.

(2016)

I got a Dummy's Guide to QBasic and wrote a very simple text-based RPG in like 5th grade. (a simple weapon shop plus battling monsters and a simple plot)

Ahh, QBasic, gateway drug into programming for many of us.

BBC Basic on the BBC Model B was the equivalent in the UK

Lovely post and like everyone else here I cut my teeth on qbasic as well. Great idea to bring it back to teach young ones the basics, pun intended :P

My first language. I had a QBasic book for children and an Epson Equity and would spend all day making toys and whatever I wanted.

Could Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby work as an introduction to programming for kids?

And you can run it on your iPhone/iPad using iDOS app.

I would argue Python could be comparably rewarding. Even Go, if you go beyond the initial hurdle why there has to be a main.

Both do not offer a nice IDE out of the box though.

Who used VB macros in old ms word?

Not to be contrarian, but Python is even simpler than Basic. You don't have GOTO, but you don't need it. Just using a subset of Python language you can do anything you need, and with less syntactic noise.

  SCREEN 13 
  LINE (X1, Y1) - (X2, Y2), COLOUR

  import turtle
  turtle.penup()
  turtle.pencolor(colour)
  turtle.setpos(x1,y1)
  turtle.pendown()
  turtle.goto(x2,y2)