Looking for software?

[VictorVonDoom]

I am looking for software like quickbasic for programming tables (random tables d100 tables for RPG's) , ...; I don't need programs who have al ready done that...
Do you know something differend? I have XP at this moment

[Simon]

Your choices are pretty much wide open. Most modern programming languages have RAD editors (visual design tools).

You have VisualC, VisualC++, VisualBasic, Eclipse (Java), JBuilder (Java), VisualAge (Java), and even some of the scripting languages like JavaScript, Flash (Macromedia), and others. I'm not sure of what design tools are available for QuickBasic....it's more or less a dead language that has been "end of life'd" by Microsoft (they're not releasing any more updates or patches to the language).

Your best bet is to pick a language that you are interested in learning. I always recommend that people learn to develop "raw" code....learn to do it without the visual editor.

Using a visual editor is easy....but if you actually want to learn to program, you're going to (at some point) have to get down to the actual code. Knowing how to do things from the ground up in code can be a very beneficial skill.

[VictorVonDoom]

and...?? where can i get them cheap? How much will it cost me? I am only interested in a simple program language just like Quickbasic 3.5 ...

What is a visual editor?
I am not interested in c-language or assembler or any language in that direction

[Simon]

Originally posted by VictorVonDoom
and...?? where can i get them cheap? How much will it cost me? I am only interested in a simple program language just like Quickbasic 3.5 ...

What is a visual editor?
I am not interested in c-language or assembler or any language in that direction

Ah...so you want to program, but you don't want to do anything complex?

You can get Java for free from Sun. But it's a full-fledged programming language, with a rich library.

You can get visual editors and RAD tools for Java for free. The Eclipse Project (www.eclipse.org) has produced one of the best IDE's on the market....and it's open source and free.

C/C++ visual editors/RAD tools tend to be pricy. I'm not a C/C++ coder, so I'm not sure if there are any out there freely available that are any good.

QBasic is available from Microsoft. I believe that QBasic is free....I'm not sure if QuickBasic is free or a licensed application. Your best bet is to check with Microsoft.

VisualBasic is also a Microsoft product. It is not free.

Macromedia's Flash is not free (the player is free, the compiler is not). You can get it from Macromedia.

If you want to get into coding, that's great, but you're going to need to do some research on your own to find out what is the best language for you.....the simpler languages will all be limited in their scope/capabilities. The "richer" languages will be much broader in the capabilities, but will also (necessarily) be more difficult to learn.

[Fuzzy Gnome]

There's also Python. It's free from python.org, and I've also seen it bundled with Windows XP and Red Hat Linux 9, though i don't know if it comes standard with those OS's. And it's named after Monty Python which makes it a gamer language automatically

[VictorVonDoom]

but python is c-language , isn't ? C-language was one i had a long while ago and i had terrible headaces about it...

I also found Tablesmith but i don't know "how far" this program goes: does it work only on d6's or can you modify dices too? Suppose a d20 table?

[Fuzzy Gnome]

Python's meant to be easier than C but IMO it's more like C than BASIC.

[RPMiller]

If you have M$ Office you have VBA, but you can't compile it.
You can get an Educational Version of VB, C#, etc. for about $99.
VB would be the closest to QuickBASIC.
Otherwise go with one of the others mentioned above.

[lemming]

Well, I'm a Perl fanatic, but it's not the most intuitive if you're not a programmer. Though it's got wonder support via community.

[Barton]

If you had PASCAL in a high school or collage class, Borland Delphi would be a good choice. It has a good visual editor and has a cheap educational version, check it out.
Delphi is not the most popular language but it is a good RAD, runs faster than V.Basic (with much less support file headaches), and is structured.

[VictorVonDoom]

what is RAD?
what is Visual in Visual basic?

[Simon]

Originally posted by VictorVonDoom
what is RAD?
what is Visual in Visual basic?

RAD = Rapid Application Development. Basically just a visual editor for a language which will (purportedly) allow you to develop an application as quickly as possible. In my experience, very few of them live up to their name, because developers tend to learn the RAD rather than the language itself and then get bogged down when they (eventually) have to resort to actual code. This is why I <b>always</b> recommend that people learn the language itself (just using a straight text-editor) before they start using any RAD environment.

The Visual in VisualBasic refers to the RAD environment that is used. VisualBasic uses graphical tools for creating code.

[Barton]

Dsimond got it right about RAD, the visual enviroment does little to teach you how to program, it just makes some (not all) tasks easier.

[Barton]

Sorry for spelling your screen name wrong DSIMON.

[VictorVonDoom]

Suppose I, an autistic guy with limited program skills (some pascal - hated it , some limited of Cobol - hated it too, basic - loved it , C - too difficult) , would ask try to pick a choice between the software offered what should i pick?