Simple Computing

My wanderings today took me back to the beginning of the personal computer revolution: the MITS Altair kit computer. Click here for a look at Altair Basic. This was Bill and Paul's first BASIC language product at a time when Microsoft Corporation was called Micro-Soft. Check out the scans of the original manual as well as Bill Gate's complaint about hobbyist piracy in a 1976 issue of Radio Electronics. Some things change and some things remain the same.

I know, I know. This blog has been dormant a long time. Life happens -- new wife, baby on the way. Life is good. Liberty Basic continues to evolve slowly -- version 4.01 is the current release. Carl is busy at work on a new more interactive Basic. I don't think it will be backwards compatible with Liberty Basic, but my forum research is incomplete and Carl does not seem to be telling. This new Basic may also be cross-platform. He believes strongly in a small core language that remains close to the roots of the language. In a .NET world, this is a refreshing direction but it is not without its consequences. Namely, lack of readily available power. I continue to use Liberty Basic for small projects, but the language presents roadblocks to COM, database and Internet technologies. Thanks to LB's DLL access, intrepid programmers have been working around these limitations and publishing their work in the monthly online newsletter . The problem is that it's much easier to use ano...

All of the Liberty Basic newsletters are now in one convenient location . The May edition ( NL108 ) of the newsletter has been published. This edition and many of the old ones can be viewed online. This is a first for the Liberty Basic newsletter. They used to be published as a text file.

The latest edition ( NL107 ) of the Liberty Basic Newsletter is on the virtual newsstand. It's free and a great resource for all levels of programmers. The previous 106 newsletters are also available at no cost.

Liberty Basic 4 is now in Alpha testing. It looks like it's going to be a big step forward for the language. Here's a brief list of the new features: True global variables. (declared using the new global keyword) Passing arguments to a sub or function by reference. (I complained about the lack of this feature in LB3 about 4 posts ago.) Handle variables and the new maphandle command. (liberation from static handles to windows, controls and files) Dynamic evaluation of Liberty Basic code inside of a running program. ( eval returns a numeric value and eval$ returns a string value) Subroutines can now be used for event handlers. (a better choice over branch labels for large programs) There are many other enhancements, but these are the big ones. The IDE also has a new feature that lets you create tutorials or lessons using a three-pane window. On the left pane is the outline of the lesson. On the upper right pane is the lesson text. On the lower right pane is LB code...

I upgraded my old Dell Dimension from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 this morning. It was an "upgrade", not a "clean install". When I first ran Liberty Basic 3.02 under the new OS, the title bar showed that it was not registered. Entering my license number again fixed the problem, but it was an unusual side effect of the upgrade. It makes me wonder how Carl is storing that license number.

Yesterday, Carl released the first alpha of Liberty Basic 4! Those interested in helping Carl test LB4 should go to the Liberty Basic Forum . Join the Liberty Basic 4 Alpha Testing forum. There is a link to download LB4 in Carl's first message. More to come on LB4's new features!