QBasic/Code Snippets

Example 1
DO CLS           'This clears the screen. It's the default first line, as it gets rid of               'unwanted text and graphics. By the way, the apostrophe is a comment. 'Everything past it is ignored by QBasic, which is why I can say anything.

PRINT "Press escape to end the insane beeping! Muahaha!" 'PRINT prints text to the screen. 'The quotes tell Qbasic that the stuff 'inside is a string. PRINT can be                                                           'replaced by a question mark "?".

DO WHILE INKEY$ <> CHR$(27) 'Checks to see if the user is pressing "escape"; the 'ASCII value of that key is represented by "CHR$(27)", 'the ASCII value of escape is 27. "DO WHILE" creates a loop, saying "Do this until 'the user whatever comes after the "DO WHILE", in our case presses escape

LET x% = INT(RND * 9000 + 100) '"LET"-This "declares" the variable. It's obsolete, so you could 'just say "x% = whatever". '"RND" generates a smallish random number. Multiplying it by 9000 'makes it a number between 0 and 9000. "+ 100" makes it between 100 'and 9100. "INT" makes it an integer (number without a                                'decimal point) and the "%" tells QBasic it's an integer, rather 'than, say, a string.

SOUND x%, 1   'This makes a sound, with its frequency (pitch) being x Hz. This number has to                'be between 36 and 32767, but ordinary speakers can't produce a frequency anywhere near '32767 Hz, and only girls and a few other humans can easily hear pitches much beyond '14000 or so. The writer of this program may have little hearing much beyond '9100 or so. ", 1" says that the sound will last 1 clock tick. A clock tick in                'QBasic happens 18.2 times a second. So, this program will make some CRAZY beeps.

LOOP          'This ties in with the "DO WHILE" part. Without this, the "DO WHILE" won't know when 'stop and start over.

PRINT "Ok, I'll stop." 'Prints "Ok, I'll stop." SLEEP 2               'Waits two seconds, then continues. Remove the "2" and it will wait for a                       'keypress. Note that different functions use different time units.

INPUT "Beep again? (y/n, then hit enter, n is default)", beep$ 'Checks to see what the user types 'before they hit enter, and stores it in a                                                                'variable ("beep")

LOOP WHILE beep$ = "y" OR beep$ = "Y" 'Tells the program to goto the start, if the users types "y"

Example 2
The following code illustrates some of the structured programming features of QBasic, such as Sub-routines and functions, and loops, and some of the QBasic graphics capabilities.

' Spiro.bas ' DECLARE SUB MoveTo (x AS DOUBLE, y AS DOUBLE) DECLARE SUB Spiro (ns AS INTEGER, nw AS INTEGER, nt AS INTEGER, d AS INTEGER, spos AS INTEGER, x AS DOUBLE, y AS DOUBLE, col AS INTEGER) DECLARE FUNCTION HighestCommonFactor (a AS INTEGER, b AS INTEGER) ' ' TEST ROUTINE DIM s AS INTEGER ' loop counter DIM col AS INTEGER ' Drawing color DIM r AS INTEGER, spos AS INTEGER, x AS DOUBLE, y AS DOUBLE

SCREEN 9 ' Set screen mode to 640x350, 16 colors x = 320 ' or Max x coordinate / 2 y = 175 ' or Max y coordinate / 2 col = 1 diam = 2	' Diameter of drawing wheel spos = 100	' Starting position FOR b = 1 TO 12 ' Draw 12 spirographs Spiro 360, 120, 360, r, spos, x, y, col r = r + 2		' increase distance from centre of drawing wheel spos = spos + 10	' increase starting position col = col + 1		' next color NEXT END

' Draw the loci of a point on a circle revolving inside ' another circle, or a circle revolving round another circle. ' Parameters: ' ns,  No. teeth in stationary part (-ve = outside) ' nw,  No. teeth in wheel (-ve = clockwise) ' nt,  No. of teeth to 'do' ' r,   Radius ' spos, tooth to start at ' x, y Coordinates of centre ' col    Drawing color SUB Spiro (ns AS INTEGER, nw AS INTEGER, nt AS INTEGER, r AS INTEGER, spos AS INTEGER, x AS DOUBLE, y AS DOUBLE, col AS INTEGER) DIM n1 AS INTEGER, n2 AS INTEGER, i AS INTEGER, n AS INTEGER, no AS INTEGER DIM a AS DOUBLE, b AS DOUBLE, alpha AS DOUBLE, beta AS DOUBLE DIM offang AS DOUBLE, dab AS DOUBLE, adif AS DOUBLE, aob AS DOUBLE DIM x1 AS DOUBLE, y1 AS DOUBLE, x2 AS DOUBLE, y2 AS DOUBLE DIM PI AS DOUBLE

PI = 3.14159265358979324# n1 = ABS(ns): n2 = ABS(nw) a = n1 / (2# * PI): b = n2 / (2# * PI) IF ns < 0 THEN dab = a + b: r = -r ELSE dab = a - b   END IF    offang = (spos - 1) * 2# * PI / n1    alpha = 0#: adif = PI / n1: aob = a / b    n = (n2 / HighestCommonFactor(n1, n2)) no = 2 * n * ABS(nt) x1 = dab + r: y1 = 0# x2 = x1 * COS(offang) + x: y2 = x1 * SIN(offang) + y   MoveTo x2, y2    FOR i = 0 TO no - 1 IF nw < 0 THEN alpha = alpha - adif ELSE alpha = alpha + adif IF ns < 0 THEN beta = -alpha * aob ELSE beta = alpha * aob x1 = dab * COS(alpha) + r * COS(alpha - beta) y1 = dab * SIN(alpha) + r * SIN(alpha - beta) x2 = x1 * COS(offang) - y1 * SIN(offang) + x       y2 = x1 * SIN(offang) + y1 * COS(offang) + y        ' setcolor(col); lineto(x2, y2) LINE -(x2, y2), col NEXT END SUB

Example of do-loop
' MoveTo x, y ' For QBasic ' For other languages, replace or omit SUB MoveTo (x AS DOUBLE, y AS DOUBLE) DIM dr AS STRING dr = "BM " + STR$(INT(x)) + "," + STR$(INT(y)) DRAW "X" + VARPTR$(dr) END SUB

' Highest common factor - Euclid's algorithm FUNCTION HighestCommonFactor (a AS INTEGER, b AS INTEGER) DIM i AS INTEGER, j AS INTEGER, r AS INTEGER IF a > b THEN i = a: j = b   ELSE i = b: j = a   END IF    r = i \ j    WHILE (r <> 0) i = j: j = r: r = i \ j   WEND HighestCommonFactor = j END FUNCTION

Credit
Taken from Wikipedia