Category: Geeks r Us
Well, I'm about to take my first lesson in Quickbasic within the next hour and am curious as to what I might create for my first program. Obviously, I won't be doing it today, but I'd like to have something to set as a goal. I'd like to create a program like the one that exists on the IPhone, where I can enter a recipe and then go back, retrieve it, have the program create a shopping list of the ingredients I'll need and then print it out, or if at all possible, braille it out, for me. And I'm sure I'll come up with other cool ideas. But that's way off in the future. Right now, I just need something very simple for a total first timer. I'm gonna brainstorm but figured I'd ask you guys, since it's a relatively easy question and you might have some interesting thoughts.
Hello world
lol I do intend on copying that one and trying it out for myself, thanks. But I wanted to make something on my own, to insure that I really understand the underlying concepts.
Hmm, I suppose I can use that as a start and then modify it to do or say something else... Bravo!
Consider using something a bit more modern than Quickbasic. I recommend python. This will expose you to programming concepts that apply today, not 20 years ago. Plus they probably have python for jailbroken iPhones, so you could potentially make an app that could be used on that platform.
They also have Python for symbian phones, I was able to write a podcast client for my E71X with it.
for (i=0;i<10;i++)
{
return(i/0);
}
try that
Ooh, this is gonna be cool! Will do. *smile*
Ask your instructor why it isn't a good idea, and why it's a joke ...
Hey, that's not nice. I had no way of knowing that. I thought you gave me something neat to try out. Glad I didn't.
Yes, python is the way to go if you want something more modern that works with most Iphones and symbian out there. That one you're looking at is a bit old, even though I do know you like older programs, if you use that, you will probably be the only on who can.
Me and all the other Enhanced DR-DOS users. I'm certainly not saying that we all use Quickbasic. I'm sure there are very good programmers out there who write in really advanced languages and that's how they're able to make all that cool modern stuff for us to use. But certainly the stuff I write will be able to run on the os. Why should I write for IPhones and such when I don't use them? Remember, I'm not doing this professionally. Also, my goal is to write programs for computers. I probably will learn a more advanced language at some point, but this is the easiest to start with and the easiest for me to understand, so I'm starting here. I'm also terrible with math and mathematical logic, so that leaves those types of languages out. I looked a bit on Wikipedia and now know that there are several kinds of programming paradymes, and without getting too technical, so will ultimately have to see which languages fit into which and which ones make me feel the most comfortable.
Now there's an idea for a really advanced program, a totally new DOS screenreader that can be adapted as the os changes. That, or I can get the source for Provox and work on that, since it's freely available. I wonder what language was used to write that. Anyway, if I were to do that, I'd definitely want to include support for software synths. I know JAWS can do it via something called Interface, so why not mine? But as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself. Off for a smoke and coffee and then back to the drawing board.
If your hell bent on using obsilete technology and reinventing the weel good luck, but don't expect help from us.
This wasn't even a technical question. It was a very easy one and one that I'd ask no matter which language I was learning. I just wanted an idea for a simple first program.
Aaah, if you use interface you are using object orientation and relying on code you don't trust. You have to write everything from scratch or rely on someone else's technology, and you cannot write a screen reader in QBasic, you need c or a variant there off, Java or Python (not saying other .net languages can't do the job or even Perl, but these would be the logicl choices).
And an interface is a derivative of classes and therefore an object oriented paradigm so you can't use it and therefore you can't plug into existing code, that is what object orientation is all about.
do not know any basic of programming and thinking of writing a brand new screen reader? that is definitely a dream that an ordinary person won't perhaps dream of.
when come to programming, it pretty much depends on how far you want to go and what is your purpose, if you just wanting to do it for fun, go for something simple to start with, stop dreaming on a large huge picture. because when you have invented your brand new screen reader, you might still stuck with your ms dos or doctor dos, when perhaps the whole idea of pc is no longer exist.
You're familiar with the program called Interface? Wow! Okay. I only found it by accident. It was developed specifically to work with MBROLA (not ESpeak, as I'd mistakenly said on another thread) and JAWS for DOS, so I'm not even sure if it could be coded to work with something else. But it certainly makes sense that it would need to be able to communicate with the screenreader and would hence be connected to it. I just looked it up again at
http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/disabilities/software/jawsfordos.php
It's done by creating a virtual driver that makes JAWS think it's connected to a Double Talk via a serial port. The thing that worries me is that they keep mentioning running DOS under a Windows or Linux shell, so I really hope this works in a true DOS environment. The other amazing thing about this is that it's multilingual, so, theoretically, I can use it to read/write in Greek. I know MBROLA is fully capable of this, but am not sure if any DOS has the ability to really do it, since it would need to be able to handle unicode. I know there's at least one unicode browser and I'm pretty sure I saw a wordprocessor that could write in it, so it may very well be possible, thereby eliminating my one huge gripe with the operating system.
You won't. The libraries you speak of require Win32 - that's it. Sound card support in DOS is like all other DOS support for hardware: a few real-mode drivers, one for each sound system task you wish to perform and contrary to what you may want to believe, opening and closing connections - a constant with a sound card in a multimedia environment - is impossible with DOS: no multi-channeling, no nothing. It's one out, for either wave or midi, and you don't have the memory capacity to connect up all the remote objects necessary to make that work. The Win32 version was explicitly designed for and by Win32 command-line interfaces for third-world countries and in fact I don't know how well it would even do on Vista or XP. It's not been actively worked on for a couple years, probably since NVDA is available for Windows and Orca for Linux. You're not gonna do it with that set of Win32 libraries in DOS.
Um, hello season? What was the purpose and title of this post? What have I been saying here? I said that I want a "simple" program for a first timer. i also said that the ones I want to do are future goals, not for now. Reading comprehention is a beautiful thing.
robozork, thanks for the info. Well, at least that one's solved. But I did hear of another software synth. something Talker, that was designed for DOS itself. I don't know how it worked and can't find it, even when I did know the name and looked for it. But someone told me they used it, maybe even worked on developing it. It was awhile ago. In any case, gonna write to Humanware for a Keynote Voicecard or SA.
I don't know much about q-basic, but for writing simple web pages your best bet is html/xhtml code this this is your first attemp at web page developement, even if it is only for fun. As for the speech program you wanted to know what code it was written in, look at its source code and it should say right at the top the basic program language. I've checked jaws and there's a lot of code to that program that I don't understand fully.
You were talking about Smooth Talker, yet another TSR that would run in memory - as opposed to behaving like an interface. Oh1 and it was **so slow!** and not recommended for screen reader use.
Sorry if I've confused you. I'm not trying to write a webpage or a web-enabled program at this point. I'm just learning the basics of programming so I can create something to work on my pc. Which JAWS did you check out, the one for Windows or the one for DOS? It would be interesting to see the differences, particularly in what language is used etc. But this is something for someone like you, who actually knows your stuff. Not sure what Smooth Talker is, but I remember mine. It's called SB Talker and it was a synthesizer designed to work with the sound blaster card. From all that I could find on it, it was definitely used successfully with screenreaders. Not sure what Smooth Talker is, but I'll look it up. Even if it can't be used with a screenreader, I'd love to hear a sample of it. I've got a passion for speech synthesizers of all kinds.
q-basic is programming language and html is basicly Hyper Text Markup Language, its two different thing.
for your information miss tifanitza, i purely suggest you to dream of something small, and achieve them, then you can proceed to making your screen reader. if they are as easy as it seems, lots of programmer would have write it themselve, instead of sticking their ass here and complain about jaws, window eyes, and etc.
Yes, there was a bit of confusion here. I should've stated that I was only meaning to write pc-specific programs and was not trying to learn a mark-up language. My post on sgml was out of curiosity, not because I'm starting with that. Anyway, my idea was exactly that, to start small and then go bigger.
Speaking of python, I've been looking at tutorials, and I think I'm going to give it a try. It almost looks like how you program certain verbs in a moo, and I know I need to work on that to give Big D a break from doing a lot of the verb coding.
I think I'll go with the idea, suggested by The Roman Battle Mask, of a metric converter. Hopefully, it'll be an easy one to write. I've never been one for mathematics. In any case, I could certainly use one.
Robozork didn't give you a nasty program, he was trying to give you a lesson in programming concepts. If you don't understand what his program does and probably more importantly why it does it, then you will find that sooner or later, when you use loops, you'll get all sorts of nasty errors.
O and this is a technical question despite what you might think. Discounting hello world, your first program is some what dependent on the language your learning.
Ah, gotcha. I didn't realise that. I mean, I know certain languages are only for scientists etc, but I figured that it would be assumed that I'm starting with a relatively simple language so my choices would be more limited. I just did a search in my Quickbasic manual and it didn't say anything about loops though one tiny bit of code did have the word loop in it. Perhaps, they're a bit more advanced for that particular manual or they don't exist in this language. I'm not sure. Anyway, I couldn't understand the lesson since I'm just starting out, though it did make me extremely curious. I tried looking up that code and got results with several languages mentioned, so I'm not even sure which one this was supposed to be.
Search and learn about in order:
if
for
while
That looked like sudo code meaning that it probably wouldn't work in any language, its just designed to give you an idea about what it does - its pretty hard to exaplin you'll probably learn how to read it at some point.
Yes it was pseudo code though in Javascript it would generate a divide by 0 error, I think it is, but it was only a loop and not an entire program. b3n was right about my intentions, but I did deliberately not write it in a language you could use - Basic or Visual Basic - as that loop embedded in your program (or a language-dependent derivative) would bring it to its knees.
I did try learning to use Dark Basic for making games and stuff, but I want to try out Python or c++ so I can make something a bit more useful.
I've never heard of Dark Basic, but I do know there's more to Basic in general than just games. There's alot that you can make. You just have to know how. In any case, now that I finally have all the files for QuickBasic, I can get started.