Where can I get a LICENSED COPY of QuickBasic 4.5?

[Moneo]

Nathan, thank you very much. I think your PowerBasic solution is by far the best. For $99, PB solves all my problems.

I visited their site and mailed them some specific questions, although I think they have almost everything already figured out.

Gracias, amigo.
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[Antoni Gual]

Moneo:
I hope you remember Wordstar-like edit commands, it's how PowerBasic for DOS IDE works.
You can use an external editor and compile from command line too...

[Moneo]

Antoni,
Of course I remember the Wordstar commands. Believe it or not, I still use Wordstar 5.0 Professional from 1988 as my editor. I haven't found anything better yet. I love the "column mode". The only problem I've had is with files over 2-3 MB.

Thanks for the info
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[Antoni Gual]

I had a lot of problems with that WS commands. My first wordprocessor for PC was wordperferct 4.0, with mouse and all . Wordstar commands are a sort of ancient history to me...

When Worstar was around I was playing with as Sinclair Spectrum...

[na_th_an]

Same here But as I had to use the JOE editor in linux at college (I'm not so masochistic to use VI ) and JOE used those wordstar commands ... Or I think so...

Are those commands the ^K thingo? i.e. ^K, B to mark the beginning of your block, ^K F to mark the end, ^K C copy, ^K Y delete, ^K M move, ^K F find, ^K S save. ^K X exit?

[Antoni Gual]

So you master this ancient art too...

[Moneo]

Well guys, I thank you for your help regarding getting a QuickBasic or similar license for using at work.

A few days ago, the technical support people installed a VTM (Vulnerability THreat Mangement) patch into my office PC which inhibits running any 16 bit programs at all. That really blows me away since all my development tools are 16 bit programs. They told me that this was a new corporate company policy.

I told my boss about this, but he didn't seem to care. He never voiced any appreciation for all the programs I made to streamline our workflow. He likes things done in manual mode. The programs I was going to develop in Quickbasic were to replace a manually perfomed software inventory using screenshots. Now, I guess they'll keep doing it manually, which by the way, for 350 PC's, takes 3 months.

I don't have time to learn a Windows 32 bit language in a vacuum by myself, because I'm leaving the company in April. They're cutting costs, and consultants like me gotta go. They probably won't spend the money to outsource the programming I was going to do. They'll just keep doing it manuallly and continue screwing up the inventory. Oh well, as they say: "Ignorance is bliss".
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[na_th_an]

That sucks, my friend. But if you really want to keep doing your programs, you could try PBCC, which is PowerBasic Console Compiler. It looks very similar to the 16 bits version but operates under Windows. That means that produces 32 bits code, allows you to use Windows API call plus, what's more important, let's you code in the good ol' "console way", just like you did in QB, for example.

But if you are leaving in April, I find it quite pointless. Ignorance is bliss, you couldn't have worded it better. Bah, bosses!

[Moneo]

Thanks again, Nathan.

The PBCC sounds like a good alternative, if I had enough remaining time on the job. Previous experience purchasing new software for the company took several months to get through the bureaucracy required.

However, I'll keep your excellent PBCC suggestion in mind for any future endeavors that come up. Do you know if a demo or trial version can be downloaded? I checked the PB site but can't seem to find such an option.

Have you heard of PickBasic, also known as UniBasic? IBM now owns it and calls it U2. For 6 years on my last job I became quite good at this language and the related multivalued database. It usually runs under Unix. I wonder if there's a Windows version. Do you know?
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