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An interview with an experienced QBasic programmers -- Jack
Jack was a QBasic programmer since 1994. He won the National Computer
Olympiad Title of Trinidad and Tobago in 1996 and later selected to
represent Trinidad and Tobago to participate in the
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). He used QBasic as his
programming language and take part in IOI since 1996 in Hungary and 1997
in South Africa. Unfortunately QBasic was abundant from IOI in 1998
hence Jack learned Turbo Pascal and participate again. This makes him
one of the few people in the world that able to participate in IOI with
more than one programming languages.
What you feel about QBasic ?
QBasic is a great language especially for the beginners. When I first met QBasic,
I was surprised about its easy syntax and user-friendly interface. Unlike
many other language, you can start your first program before you know anything.
I can still remember my first program was :
CLS
PRINT "MY NAME IS JACK"
I am sure you can do that right ?!
What you feel the best about QBasic ?
There are many good things about QBasic. I like it because it is an interpreter.
That makes it easy to debug and make corrections. Unlike many other compilers,
it allow the programmer to change the code while the program is running.
It might not seen so helpful but it is very useful when debugging.
Before QuickBasic 4.5 was introduced, I was disappointed that QBasic cannot
convert a source code file into an excutable file. It is important because most
programmers do not wish their programming code to be seen by others. Can you
imagine that you can see all the source code of Window 95 ?? All these problem
had be solved when QuickBasic 4.5 is introduced. Unfortunately it is still
not a shareware. I am hopping that Microsoft whill release in a short period
of time.
What version of QBasic are you using now and why ?
I am using QuickBasic 4.5, it was the official language of IOI (International
Olympiad in Informatics). I heard that QBasic has a new version (7.1 or shomehting)
However I never got a chance to test it, so I cannot make any comment here.
The number of programmers using QBasic has decrease every year, why is that and how can it be improved ?
First of all I am not sure about that statement. I feel QBasic is still a very
popular language around. From a recent example, when QBASIC TOP50 was introduced
to the public, it had grown very quickly and remain active up to today,
however when Virtual Basic TOP50 was introduced, it had very few visitors
and then forced to shut down after two months. This tells you that they
are still a lot of QBasic programmers around. However, we must admit that
QBasic is not a very good programming language for a complex and graphical
program. Because of it's easy syntax, it is not a very structure programming
which make it difficult to develop a large program. This might be the reason
that many programmers do not choose QBasic as their programming language
if they want to be professional. Just like the old saying : "You gain some you loss some ......."
I know you are also a Pascal programmer, can you please compare these two languages for us ?
I have to say that QBasic and Pascal are two very simillar programming language. This was one of the
reason I choose to learn Pascal as my second programming language. The
biggest difference between these two is that QBasic is an interpreter and
Pascal is a compiler. In Pascal, you to to declare every variable that you
used in the program. This cause me a little trouble at beginning, however
I could get use to it in a short while. Pascal is also a more structure
programming language. You to to properly indent your program to minimize the confusion.
If you missed an "END IF" in QBasic, it is not that
hard for you to figure it out and fix it. However if miss an "END" in
Pascal, you are in a big mess .........
What you think are the weakness of QBasic or QuickBasic ?
As I had mentioned before, Qbasic is not a very good language for long
and complex program. It was originally design for beginners. In addition,
QBasic doesn't support a good graphical operation. You hardly see anybody
wrote a nice graphical program with QBasic. Fortunately it is improving now,
many new liberies file are added, this save programmers a lot of time. Few
years ago, we had to write everything ourselves, include all the sub routines
for basic jobs and etc.
What are some of the advantages of learning program
Oh...There are to many of them !! According to PC HOME magazine, there
are 100,000 jobs still available for programmers in US along. Beside
this, learning program will not only helps you in computing, it will also
helps you in mathematics and develop a quick logical thinking. If you ask
me does programming really helps you in your daily life,then take an example
from me, when I was writing homepages, I often write a samll program to help
me to do all those repeating job.For example if I want add a line to all
my HTML files, then I can use a simple program to get the job down. We are
approching 21st century, the knowledge of computing, include programming and
all other stuff are very important. I personally recommet all students today
to get in touch with computers as early as possible.
What is the best way to learn programming
From my personal experience, the best way to learn programming is by examing
other people's source code. Ask yourself "HOW DID HE DO THAT ??" In the field
of programming, "SKILL" is equal to "EXPERIENCE". More you try more you going
to learn. By dry running other people's program, you will understand how other
programmer creat their programs and how they structure their programs. I remember
when I was first learning QBasic, I love to download other people's game and try
to write a cheat code for every games. This helps me a lot because I have to
fully understand their programs before I can do so. (of course you have to
first make sure this does not against copyright)
If I know Pascal, C++ or some other programming languages already, do I still
need to learn QBasic ?
No, I don't think so. QBasic is good for beginner, the main purpose is to
introduce what is programming to non-programmers. If you already know
another language, then it is not necessary for you to learn QBasic unless
you want to enjoy the beauty of QBasic's easy syntax and structure.
What you normally do before you start to write a program ?
Some people like to write a plan before they start, however I don't
normally do that. I like to, what they called, "GO WITH THE FLOW !"
I will plan in my head with is the main purpose of this program then go
go stright into QBasic screen and start to type. Then solve any problem
on my way. I love to seperate my program into small pieces and then solve
it one by one. This is very helpfule when you making a large program.
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