Learning PowerBasic - first project ?

[Guillaume HEDIEU]

Hi everyone,

I'm new on this forum and didn't know how to start to introduce me so here it is, I'm Guillaume 45 year's old, and a big fan of "old programming tools". I'm not a pro dev but I love experiment.

I discovered PowerBASIC some days ago and started learning it with the excellent tutorials on Youtube for beginner. Hioverver, as I said I love experiment and I wonder with witch project or mini project a beginner could start with ? some ideas or advices ?

To be honest I don't have any need, just love making and coding. I search for inspirations if you have some advices or ideas, I listen to you

Also, please apologize for my english !

See you !

Guillaume

[Brian Alvarez]

Hello Guillaume, and welcome. Here is a Hello World for you!

   #Compile Exe

   Function PBMain() As Long
      MSGBOX "Hello World!"
   End Function

You can try creating a DDT statement so you get used to the dialog tools that PowerBASIC offers.

   #Compile Exe
   #Include "Win32API.inc"

   Function PBMain() As Long
      Dim hDlg As Dword, hCtl As Dword
      Dialog New 0, "PowerBASIC",300,300,100,75, %WS_SysMenu,0 To hDlg
      Control Add Button, hDlg, 2, "Cancel", 25, 15, 40, 20
      Dialog Show Modal hDlg Call DlgProc To Result&
   End Function

   CallBack Function DlgProc() As Long
      If CbMsg = %WM_Command Then Dialog End CbHndl, 0
   End Function

Source:

https://www.garybeene.com/power/pb-sample.htm

Once you are more confortable with how PowerBASIC works, it will be easier to tackle on the bunch of examples that the Source section of these forums have!

[Borje Hagsten]

Hello and welcome! A good way to start learning is by looking at examples. There is a subfolder calles "samples" in your PB folder where you have many examples that shows "how to", for example in \samples\DDT\Menu\Menu.bas, that shows how to build a menu and interact with it, or \samples\DDT\Option\OPTIONS.BAS, ashowing how to use option controls for selection, etc. Lots of fun stuff to learn from there. And of course, never hesitate to ask questions here.

[Guillaume HEDIEU]

Thank you I follow the Beginner Tutorial on Youtube, some things are some kind easy and other new for me. I try a lot of differents BASIC langages but very different than this one. It's a bit different but I like it.BASIC I tried before were more "modern". I like this one because it remembers me the old ages

I used some other languages totally different like Java too. A lot of thing to learn !

[Mike Doty]

a big fan of "old programming tools"

Old programming style can be used with the console compiler.

FUNCTION PBMAIN
 COLOR 7,1,1
 CLS
 PRINT "Hello, world!";WAITKEY$
END FUNCTION

[Guillaume HEDIEU]

Yes I start here before trying the win version. I bought the bundle version

I come from Purebasic that is an other BASIC but with a very different approach. I should take some time to get into PowerBASIC.

[Michael Mattias]

"Old Faithful " is a simple file maintenance. You'll need to learn a little of screen design, editing, and file access all in one program.

I come from Purebasic

(For the Windows versions of PowerBASIC for Windows). If PureBASIC is an MS-DOS BASIC, at some point you have to start thinking in the Windows environment: to wit, in MS-DOS programs you ask if the user has done something such as press a key or click the mouse and if so, react accordingly. In the Windows environment, Windows tells you everything the user does and you have to pick out those things which are important to you.

It may sound straightforward and actually is( an 'ask' model versus a 'tell' model), it definitely takes some getting used to.

[Guillaume HEDIEU]

PureBasic is a Windows BASIC (but you can make console app too). The approach is a little bit different and the syntax more modern. I think I will learn a lot from PowerBASIC because it has a large "years experience". The first BASIC I tried was on an MO5 (Thomson) it's quite old but it was very cool

[Gary Beene]

Howdy, Guillaume!

Welcome to PowerBASIC!

I have a variety of tutorials here ... http://www.garybeene.com/power/power.htm ... that you might find useful. The first 4 sections are particularly aimed at folks new to PowerBASIC.

Feel free to ask questions about the content if you need help!

[Guillaume HEDIEU]

Hello, you know what, I've alreay find these ! Thank you for that !

[Graham McPhee]

Hi Guillaume, welcome to the PowerBasic forums. You'll find this a rich source of information and ideas for projects.

[Tim Lakinir]

Hello Guillaume, please check out the PB tutorials website by Graham https://www.gsfsoftware.co.uk/PBTutorials/Recent.htm
It is fantastic as it comes with youtube videos tutorials