Learning Basic - Classic Book Available on Amazon

[Frank Ferrell]

Greetings ...

In 1991, Sams Publishing released "Learning Basic" by Don Inman.

The book gave instructions on how to program using PowerBASIC DOS. I still have my copy, and reference it many times.

If this were 1991, I would have gladly recommended to any high school or college that they get this book for class instruction. Even today, it would look good on any school's library shelf.

It included a 3.5-inch 1.44-mb (or 5.25 360k, depending on version) floppy disk with PowerBASIC Lite, which allowed programs to run in memory only.

The book lists (with some exceptions) the many functions and statements used in PowerBasic DOS.

For anyone who's interested, 4 used copies are currently available at Amazon.com

If a book comes without a disk, you can still download a trial version of PowerBasic 3.2 directly from the PowerBASIC web-site.

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Thanx-A-Lot and Enjoy, Frank


[This message has been edited by Frank Ferrell (edited May 05, 2007).]

[Donald Darden]

Note that many disks found in old books may have suffered over time,
because of heat and other factors. The plastic folders that hold
them may even have caused static electricity discharges that could
have damaged the disk - particularly the 5.25 inch floppies. In
addition, the lubricant used to allow the floppy to spin in the
sealed sleeve will likely have bled though the floppy cover, and
any floppies in that condition are unlikely to be in good enough
shape to use in a floppy drive.

If you decide to buy the book as a way to get a copy of the software,
you might want to explore your options if the disk turns out to be
defective. First, you would be much better off if the disk that
is included is a 3.5 inch floppy, since this is not as susceptable
to damage over time. Second, if the book is used, then see if the
disk is visually in good shape. Third, see if you can source a
replacement disk with the right version of PowerBasic on it, just
in case your other efforts fail.

The verson of PowerBasic for DOS version 3.2 that is found in the
download/Demos section of this web site does not permit you to
read any source files - you have to type your program in by hand,
and you have to do it again when you want to run it again. So it
really serves just to let you try your hand at writing a little
bit of PowerBasic code. PowerBasic for DOS was a stable release,
but the final version of PB/DOS was 3.5.

For those still committed to PB/DOS, I noted a substantial
effort to upgrade the appearance of and explain some of the
available code that is available in the download section. It
deserves a visit if you haven't been there in awhile.



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Old Navy Chief, Systems Engineer, Systems Analyst, now semi-retired