[TowerTalk] DOS?

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

Basic is not a compiled language as opposed to Visual Basic (VB). The 
source is "interpreted" at run time. IOW: Virtually any DOS machine will 
run BASIC.  Emulators?

BASIC is very easy to understand. Rewriting from BASIC to VB is 
"usually" a relatively easy task, although some programmers can write 
some rather obtuse code that defies understanding. VB uses the Dynamic 
Linked Libraries (DLLs) present in windows making the compiled version 
much larger than the source code.

If written in BASIC, it's likely it wasn't written by a professional 
programmer. Figure out what it's doing, flow chart it, and then code it 
in VB.

I doubt it's more than a couple pages long. Few "BASIC" programs were.
BASIC = Beginning All Purpose Instruction Code.

It would likely be easy to redo the entire thing in Visual Basic and 
then compiled. It then it "should" run on most flavors of Windows 
although I'd not go for any older than XP.

If the BASIC simulators have problems. I'd rewrite and compile it on XP 
if available and hope for the best. Otherwise all that is necessary is 
to run the rewritten source code through a VB compiler on that version 
of Windows.

NOTE: The compilers that come in instruction books, normally do not 
write portable code. The compiled result will run only on that computer.

I wrote a rather elaborate search program in VB for the big fly-in at 
Oshkosh (Now called Airventure). When I went to install it on their 
computer, I discovered that I hadn't brought the correct disks. I could 
fly back home and retrieve the correct disks at 4 hours in a Bonanza 
burning 14.5 gallons of Av Gas per hour, or write it, starting from 
scratch. I rewrote about 10 pages of source code and compiled it in 
about a day and a half.  If you do it for a living, it's "normally" not 
a big deal.

Yes I have a BS in CS with a Math minor, plus work toward a Masters.  A 
good job offer ended that.

  73

Roger (K8RI)


On 10/12/2016 Wednesday 8:04 AM, Bryan Fields wrote:
> On 10/11/16 12:57 PM, K7LXC--- via TowerTalk wrote:
>>      I sell a little app for mast calculations called  MARC (Mast, Antenna
>> and Rotator Calculator) and it was written in ye olde days  of DOS. It has an
>> early version for Windows as well but doesn't work on any  current
>> operating systems. Is there someone out that could update it for me? I  don't know
>> what's involved but will be willing to pay for your efforts.  Tnx.
> Why not open source it?  I doubt it will be easy to port it vs. a complete
> rewrite if it's a compiled basic program.
>
> 73's


-- 

73

Roger (K8RI)


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