Post by Basic Bear on May 6, 2021 14:16:02 GMT -5
Back in the 90s Interplay and Stepping Stone created a Basic Programming language for highschools (and non-schools) called “Learn To Program Basic”. It was available for both Windows 95 and MacOS 7.
When you start the cd you are greeted by your hosts Media Man and Goo. They also are your teachers (if you would use that term);throughout the 10 lessons available.
What made the language nice, for me, was the sprite commands available. Something I believe is lacking in modern Basic languages.
Sprites are images that move around the screen and can be animated. In LTPB, sprites move and act independently butcan also be controlled manually.
Another feature of the language was the ability to play Macintosh file formats: .aif file for audio, and .mov files for video. For images you could use .bmp files.
One of the biggest drawbacks of this language is the very limited screen resolution and color selection. For the screen you were lonly able to use one resolution: 320x240. Colors were set at 236 colors available out of 256. Video files and images needed to be created in the same setup to work.
The language had a three layer system: Background, Text, and Sprites which were independent but you could swap the layers.
For me, this was always a fun and enjoyable language to play in, even with the restrictions.
I am curious to know if anyone else has heard of this old forgotten language, and if anyone has actually used it.
Long Live Basic - Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
When you start the cd you are greeted by your hosts Media Man and Goo. They also are your teachers (if you would use that term);throughout the 10 lessons available.
What made the language nice, for me, was the sprite commands available. Something I believe is lacking in modern Basic languages.
Sprites are images that move around the screen and can be animated. In LTPB, sprites move and act independently butcan also be controlled manually.
Another feature of the language was the ability to play Macintosh file formats: .aif file for audio, and .mov files for video. For images you could use .bmp files.
One of the biggest drawbacks of this language is the very limited screen resolution and color selection. For the screen you were lonly able to use one resolution: 320x240. Colors were set at 236 colors available out of 256. Video files and images needed to be created in the same setup to work.
The language had a three layer system: Background, Text, and Sprites which were independent but you could swap the layers.
For me, this was always a fun and enjoyable language to play in, even with the restrictions.
I am curious to know if anyone else has heard of this old forgotten language, and if anyone has actually used it.
Long Live Basic - Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code