Hello Steven!

You asked about BASIC for OS/2.

Here's what I've learned and why I bothered! :')

I grew up with DOS and various flavors of basic. My last "stop off
point" in that environment was DOS 5.0 and QuickBasic by MicroSoft. My
"Take off point" was OS/2 2.0 as soon as I figured out that
MicroSoft would never deliver Cairo. I never looked back at that old os,
but I surely am not happy not being able to write OS/2 native programs in
basic...

Anyway, since jumping into OS/2, I've been a bit lost without being able to
write OS/2 native programs in BASIC. And, believe me, I've run the
gauntlet. 

Of all the commercial BASIC compilers, CA Realizer sucked wind the most. It
doesn't actually compile your code and so demands the use and distribution
of a runtime module that is over 700K big. I bought CA and worked with it
for about 2 weeks and sold it soon after...

PDS 7.1 (by MicroSoft of all sources) seems to be the only real alternative
for writing and compiling basic code for OS/2. However, at a price that I
refuse to pay. I guess being the only real vendor for such a platform
allows you to charge what you can. Besides the high price, PDS will only
compile text mode apps and in 16bit flavor. If you are into OS/2's GUI and
like the idea of 32bitness, forget it, PDS is a deadend product...

On the shareware scene, I've found ONE basic language that kinda' (and I'm
using this casually) fits what I need in a basic language for the OS/2
platform. But before I name it, let me describe it... :')

It was intended to teach basic programing to newbies. It originated on the
DOS/WOINDOWS platform and was ported to OS/2 not too long ago. It's a fully
implemented basic and lacks some of the things that I dearly miss from my
QuickBasic days. However it is quite easy to get the feel of and runs as
well as it's windows brother. The things that I'd like to see in it are;
serial I/O support and the ability to access and use the code in OS/2's
DLL's, oh yeah... I'd like to see it be able to compile text mode apps
also, you see it's one of "those GUI" enabled deals. 

Liberty Basic is developed at SHOPTALK SYSTEMS and it authors name is 
Carl Gundel. 

Supported basic statements in Liberty Basic are:

ABS()   ACS()   ASN()   ATN()   ASC()   BEEP   CHR$()   CLOSE   CLS   
CONFIRM   COS()   DATE$()   DIM   END   EOF()   EXP()   FIELD   FOR...NEXT   
GET   GETTRIM   GOSUB...RETURN   GOTO   IF...THEN...ELSE   INPUT$()   
INPUT   INPUT #   INSTR()   INT()   LEFT$()   LEN()   LET   LOF()   LOG()   
LPRINT   MID$()   OPEN   PRINT   PRINT #   PUT   REM   RETURN   RIGHT$()   
RND()   STOP   SIN()   SORT   STR$()   TAN()   TIME$()   TRACE   TRIM$()   
USING()   VAL()   WHILE...WEND   WORD$()

Plus a few others that handle drawing windows and other such GUI stuff...

You can reach Carl at 508 872-5315 or CIS 71231,1532. You can get the
compiler from me or other locations as LB07.ZIP. Be aware, Steven, if you
are running Warp, you'll need this version or later for it to run properly.
 

Have fun, Steven and hope this helps you.     

Jerry McBride

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