qbasic_ui

A pet project to see if I can create a Windows-like UI for MS-DOS in QBASIC.

Code base highlights

I am in no way an expert in QBASIC; I just want to see if I could create better programs than 15-yo me from decades ago.

I'm not a complete beginner, though. This isn't that "Guess the random number" game in text mode that you've seen million times. You know the one. :-P

In this repository, you will find :

• A little bit of calling DOS interrupts (for basic mouse, screen control)
• A little bit of memory addressing
• Some bit manipulation (especially to decode the result of the GET graphical command)
• etc.

Please note that this uses graphical mode SCREEN 12 (640x480 pixels , 16 colors) and I haven't see a lot of QBASIC code on the Internet dealing with that mode. It's usually mostly MS-DOS mode 13h (320x200, 256 colors), better suited for video games.

How to run

• Get DosBox.

• At the end of your DosBox config file (in the [autoexec] section), add this so that QBX.EXE can be run from any folder : SET PATH=C:\bc7\bin;

• Still in DosBox, use the classic mount command to mount the repo's directory structure at the root of Dosbox's C:
  For example if the project is in C:\MyRepos\ThisProject on your computer, type this in DosBox :

  mount c "C:\MyRepos\ThisProject"

  Now if you run DosBox you see this in DOS: C:\SRC C:\BC7

  Note: BC7 is the latest version of QBasic that was released back in the days. I think? It lets you compile to .EXE and even to binary libraries (.QLB)

  Note: Other folders are not really used, they remain from trial and error to make everything work.

• Go to C:\SRC cd C:\SRC

• Run QBX.bat.

  That batch file does 2 things :

  1. opens QBASIC in "high resolution" (/H switch), for comfort
  2. makes sure that library QBX.QLB gets loaded in memory (/L switch). It's supposed to be loaded by default anyways but you never know

• Open C:\SRC\MAIN.BAS or C:\SRC\MAINCPY.BAS, I'm not sure which. Every other .BAS file is just test tools or code stolen from the Internet to study the language.

• Run it with F5

• Press key Q to exit the program (I haven't managed to remember yet how to use INKEY$ to check ESC key ;-))