Just Basic Tutorials and WinHlp32

I have investigated Just Basic, a free version of basic.  It is at version 1.01 and was released in 2004.  They have a commercial version, Liberty Basic, that is just $60.  That is cheaper than a meal at the Cheesecake Factory.  So if you really like Just Basic, there is an upgrade available if you want to continue working with it.

Just Basic comes with a tutorial.  You can find it under Help > Just Basic Tutorial.  It works just fine in Windows XP.  However, Microsoft dropped a file WinHlp32.exe, from Windows releases subsequent to XP.  The tutorial requires this executable file, but it is still available from Microsoft.  You just have to get it and install it.  Of course, Microsoft has made this more difficult by requiring that you use their proprietary browser, MS Internet Explorer.

WinHlp.exe comes in different versions for Windows Vista and Windows 7.  Google to get the download page for WinHlp.exe for your version of Windows using Microsoft Internet Explorer.  That is important.  Microsoft has designed their download for WinHlp32 so it will not work with Mozilla or Chrome.  Once the download and installation is complete (the download process has an installation step), you can open the tutorial.

The tutorial is designed for real beginners.  It has a section in Week 1 (the tutorial is designed as a 6 week class) entitled, "Programming - What is it?"  This is important for a person not previously introduced to programming.  The book Head First C, for example, explicitly says it does not teach programming.  The Head First organization has a book to teach programming, Head First Programming, but it uses Python as the teaching language.  Python is a fine language, but scripting languages tend to be faddish and fall by the wayside, replaced by the latest fad in scripting languages.  If you only learn one programming language in your entire life, it should be Basic.  It is a language that is here to stay.  It was created 48 years ago and is still used by businesses in creating professional, complex products and tools.  Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), for example, is embedded by Microsoft in some of its products.  I have created complex, technical applications using VBA in Excel and in Visio.  I will mention, however, that VBA will choke on large problems.  It has limited memory available to it and chokes on large data sets and large quantities of data structures.  Professional programmers must know more than one language.

Visual Basic 2010 Express is also a free tool.  I will discuss this another time.

Robert

PS: Remember that the book Programming for the Absolute Beginner by Jerry Ford uses Just Basic.