help opening a .bas

[programmer]

can qbasic open a .bas file
if it can how

[brisray]

What a strange question - it should be able to, QBasic creates BAS files.

Actually the answer isn't so straightforward as that.

From v4.5 (I think) QBasic can save the BAS files in a non-text form. QBasic v1.1 can only open them if they were saved as text files.

Also Visual Basic saves module files as BAS files. QBasic v1.1 can open them as well as V4.5 and v7.1 BAS files, whether it makes any sense to it is a different matter.

There is another thing to consider, if you mean how you associate BAS files with QBasic on a Windows PC, then yes you can have problems as if you've got VB or Visual Studio loaded then the BAS files are associated with Visual Basic.

I use Visual Basic but have changed the file association so that BAS files always open QBasic. I use Windows 2000 so you may have to change the way you do this but to change the association in Windows Explorer open Tools > Folder Options > File Types. Highlight BAS then Change > Other. (QBAsic isn't a registered program so it's not listed). Click the "Always use this program to open these files" box. Now look for QBasic.exe and click OK.

Another, not so permanent, but always available way is to create a shortcut to QBasic and put it in the Windows Send To folder. Now you can just right click on a BAS file and choose QBasic to open it.

Ray

[programmer]

lol
sorry i should of ritten in more detail
im like can qbasic open a .bas file with a command in a program.
eg.
____________________________________________
PRINT "IF YOU WANT TO OPEN A CALCULATOR PRESS 1 "
INPUT " IF YOU WANT TO QUIT PRESS 2", a$
_____________________________________________
then have respond to the input by opening a .bas program or end

[brisray]

Ha, now I understand. There certainly is a command to do this. It's called CHAIN

Here's a simple program, CALLBAS.BAS

DO
CLS
Cmmnd$ = ""
PRINT "This is callbas.bas"
PRINT
PRINT "What you like to do?"
PRINT
PRINT "Call next.bas (C)"
PRINT "Exit the program (X)"
DO
Cmmnd$ = UCASE$(INKEY$)
LOOP UNTIL Cmmnd$ <> ""
IF Cmmnd$ = "C" THEN
CHAIN "c:\qbasic\next.bas"
Cmmnd$ = ""
END IF
LOOP UNTIL Cmmnd$ = "X"
END

and and even simpler one being called NEXT.BAS:-

CLS
PRINT "This is next.bas"
PRINT
PRINT "Press any key to return to callbas.bas"
DO
Cmmnd$ = INKEY$
LOOP UNTIL Cmmnd$ <> ""
CHAIN "c:\qbasic\callbas.bas"
END


Have you considered using a batch file to start the various basic programs?

The batch file simply contains a simple menu and the commands to open the QBasic files without showing the editor.

Here's a simple menu in a batch file :-

REM - Main menu
@echo off
:loop
cls
echo.
echo. ******************************
echo. * Welcome to Ray Batch *
echo. ******************************
echo.
echo.
echo. What would like to do?
echo.
echo.
echo.
echo. S - Show a calandar (Press Esc when you've finished with it)
echo.
echo. R - Use RayDos - an improved DOS (sort of)
echo.
echo. X - Exit this batch file.
echo.

choice /C:SRX /N " Press D,S,R or X to continue ..."

if errorlevel 3 goto end
if errorlevel 2 goto fundos
if errorlevel 1 goto cal

REM - Run QBasic Calandar program
:cal
a:\qbasic.exe /run a:\calandar.bas
goto loop

REM - Run QBasic RayDos program
:fundos
a:\qbasic.exe /run a:\raydos.bas
goto loop

REM - Quit program
:end


It assumes that QBasic and the programs are on the A: drive, you can easily edit it for your own uses. When you do remember to not use END in your BAS programs but use SYSTEM instead.

You'll also need the DOS program CHOICE. This is not available with some versions DOS supplied with Windows. You should be able to get a copy from anything before Windows ME though. If you copy it from an older machine it should work, as far as I know it's not going to give one of those "Wrong DOS version" messages.

Ray

[programmer]

thx
i've been dieing to no how