Like QuickBASIC, but unlike earlier versions of Microsoft BASIC, QBasic is a structured programming language, supporting constructs such as subroutines.[2]Line numbers, a concept often associated with BASIC, are supported for compatibility, but are not considered good form, having been replaced by descriptive line labels.[1] QBasic has limited support for user-defined data types (structures), and several primitive types used to contain strings of text or numeric data.[3][4] It supports various inbuilt functions.
For its time, QBasic provided a state-of-the-art IDE, including a debugger with features such as on-the-fly expression evaluation and code modification.[citation needed]
QBasic was intended as a replacement for GW-BASIC. It was based on the earlier QuickBASIC 4.5 compiler but without QuickBASIC's compiler and linker elements. Version 1.0 was shipped together with MS-DOS 5.0 and higher, as well as Windows 95, Windows NT 3.x, and Windows NT 4.0. IBM recompiled QBasic and included it in PC DOS 5.x, as well as OS/2 2.0 onwards.[5]eComStation and ArcaOS, descended from OS/2 code, include QBasic 1.0. QBasic 1.1 is included with MS-DOS 6.x, and, without EDIT, in Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me. Starting with Windows 2000, Microsoft no longer includes QBasic with their operating systems.[6]
QBasic (as well as the built-in MS-DOS Editor) is backwards-compatible with DOS releases prior to 5.0 (down to at least DOS 3.20). However, if used on any 8088/8086 computers, or on some 80286 computers, the QBasic program may run very slowly, or perhaps not at all, due to DOS memory size limits. Until MS-DOS 7, MS-DOS Editor and Help required QBasic: the EDIT.COM and HELP.COM programs simply started QBasic in editor and help mode only, and these can also be entered by running QBASIC.EXE with the /EDITOR and /QHELP switches (i.e., command lines QBASIC /EDITOR and QBASIC /QHELP).
QBasic came complete with four pre-written example programs. These were Nibbles, a variant of the Snake game; Gorillas, an artillery game; MONEY MANAGER, a personal finance manager; and RemLine, a Q-BASIC code line-number-removing program.[1]
QBasic has an Easter egg accessed by pressing and holding Left CTRL+Left SHIFT+Left ALT+Right CTRL+Right SHIFT+Right ALT simultaneously after running QBasic at the DOS prompt but before the title screen loads: this lists The Team of programmers.[7]
This browser is not supported by Wikiwand :( Wikiwand requires a browser with modern capabilities in order to provide you with the best reading experience. Please download and use one of the following browsers:
Your input will affect cover photo selection, along with input from other users.
X
Get ready for Wikiwand 2.0 🎉! the new version arrives on September 1st! Don't want to wait?
Oh no, there's been an error
Please help us solve this error by emailing us at support@wikiwand.com
Let us know what you've done that caused this error, what browser you're using, and whether you have any special extensions/add-ons installed.
Thank you!