PowerBasic TextBooks; Courses using PowerBasic

[Frank Ferrell]

Greetings --

Have there been any textbooks besides Don Inman's Learning Basic (ISBN 0-672-30007-9, out of print) which specificly deal with PowerBasic?

Are you aware of any elementary, high school, tech school or college programs that use PowerBasic Languages (DOS-CC-PB/DLL) as part of their teaching curriculums??


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Thanx-A-Lot, Enjoy and God Bless Vespucci-Land,
Frank Please visit My Humble Abode

[This message has been edited by Frank Ferrell (edited February 17, 2007).]

[Tom Hanlin]

There have been other books on PowerBASIC in the past. None are currently
in print, to the best of my knowledge. We do still have some copies of
Learning BASIC in stock.

It seems schools are always on a low budget. The most common version of
PowerBASIC used in teaching programs is the old FirstBASIC shareware
compiler.

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Tom Hanlin
PowerBASIC Staff

[Frank Ferrell]

Greetings and Thanx Tom,

A junior college (CVCC) in my hometown of Phenix City, AL is still teaching a course (CIS 211) with a textbook using (oh-my-stars!) Q-Basic. Obviously, the "Gospel according to Zale" hasn't caught on with them!

Something I've never seen -- and I'm sure this would be of interest --- is the chronology of PowerBasic software -- spanning the company's entire existance, as well as a few key dates beforehand.


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Thanx-A-Lot, Enjoy and God Bless Vespucci-Land,
Frank Please visit My Humble Abode



[This message has been edited by Frank Ferrell (edited February 17, 2007).]

[Allen B. Zilbert]

I am curious. What type of interest would there be in a textbook for PowerBASIC?
At what level of programmer would the book be aimed at?
Would the book be written for PBDOS, PBDLL, PBCC, or some sort of combination?
What specific topics would there be of interest to be covered in a PB text?
As a college professor, programmer, and PowerBasic user, I might be interested in writing one, if I knew that there was an audience out there that would be interested in it.

Allen

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[Don Ewald]

Greetings!

I'd be interested in such a book for some of my friends. A while ago when I was still a beginner and didn't fully understand things it would have served me well. I've trudged my way through it with some guidance from these forums but I've a handful of friends that would benefit from such text as I won't loan my manuals or laptop with the compiler.


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Don Ewald
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Jerry Fielden]

last i heard, troy king is giving a shot at authoring some kind
of pb instruction book. that was last march. you can find his
email or read about it from the following address.
http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...ad.php?t=15046

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[Tom Hanlin]

A PowerBASIC chronology does sound interesting. I'll have to look into it.

I don't think Dave ever got around to writing that book.

I imagine there's a market for good introductory books on PowerBASIC for
Windows, and on calling the Windows APIs from PowerBASIC programs.

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Tom Hanlin
PowerBASIC Staff

[Lance Edmonds]

I believe he started a PowerBASIC/Windows book, but never had time to finish it...

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Allen B. Zilbert]

I will put together a listing of topics that I hope would be
of interest for a PowerBASIC book for Windows within the next
week or two.

Allen


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[Lance Edmonds]

Is this topic list aimed toward a DOS or Windows PowerBASIC book?

If Windows, then Troy King has already accumulated such a list, with the help of quite a few people. It may be worthwhile discussing it with him?




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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Allen B. Zilbert]

Lance,

For PowerBASIC is the demand more for DOS or Windows with
respect to a book.

Allen


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[Lance Edmonds]

Allen, what is your plan here? Are you venturing to write a book yourself, or are you just interested in putting a topic list together?

While DOS is certainly FAR from dead, it is also not the most popular programming platform these days... for example, take a look at the BBS forum message counts... PowerBASIC for Windows is a clear winner in terms of volume of posts, with PB/CC coming in second.

So, if it were me writing the book, I'd be doing a Windows programming book, covering everything from messaging to multi-threading.

However, your vision may be different to mine...

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Frank Ferrell]

Greetings --

My-oh-my, what a topic this is turning into.

Since PBDOS is very easy to learn, and because PBCC resembles PBDOS in several ways, then perhaps a new Millenium Edition of Learning Basic, highlighting PBCC, would be the textbook to publish. I know I want a copy.

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Thanx-A-Lot, Enjoy and God Bless Vespucci-Land,
Frank Please visit My Humble Abode

[This message has been edited by Frank Ferrell (edited October 08, 2001).]

[Allen B. Zilbert]

Lance,

I would be interested in writing a book. Would you know if
there are any colleges that are currently using PowerBASIC?
From my own experience teaching at the college level, I have
not found any school using this compiler for teaching.

Also, would you know of any publishers that would be interested
in printing this book if it existed?

Allen


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[Lance Edmonds]

You'd really have to speak to PowerBASIC Sales Dept for those aspects as I'm not permitted to disclose that kind of customer information.

Allen, I do know that Troy King had organized a publisher, so I do recommend that you contact him to discuss it further. Sales may have ideas for you here too.

I wish you well for your venture!

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Davide Vecchi]

[KIDDING]
Lance,

While DOS is certainly FAR from dead, it is also not the most popular programming platform these days... for example, take a look at the BBS forum message counts... PowerBASIC for Windows is a clear winner in terms of volume of posts

Once one guy (can' t remember well) was highlighting something like that on dunno which VB forum there it were many more posts about a topic than he could get here; you replied kind of- do they need so much help to get the job done in VB - and you looked me (and still look) so right!
[/KIDDING]
End of joke. Even though i don' t use PB/DLL yet, i read its forum and i see that the ratio of topics based on troubles is incredibly low, more or less the same of VB forums about posts not based on troubles.

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Davide Vecchi
[email protected]

[Robert E. Carneal]

What specific topics would there be of interest to be covered in a PB text?
As a college professor, programmer, and PowerBasic user, I might be interested in writing one, if I knew that there was an audience out there that would be interested in it.

Wow, hard to answer. In MY case, my applications would be genealogy specific. I might write a routine to determine someone's soundex code (Mine is C654), and use to to look for other names that are closely spelled the same as mine.

I would surely write a program to check a location against the latitude and longitude.

I would like to write a program to determine ages of my ancestors when they passed.

I would like to write a program to assemble a list of hereditary causes of death and *where* they often occur.

I would like to write a program to help me see causes of death, and at what ages they often occur.

Basically, it would be almost all genealogically related.

Would I sell any of it? Personal use is my goal, but if someone wants something I write, why not?

Thanks. Robert