Course Overview

What this BASIC course covers, how to use it, prerequisites.

A self-contained, hands-on course covering the BASIC programming language family — from the original 1964 Dartmouth BASIC and the line-numbered BASICs of the home-computer era to modern structured dialects. The main teaching dialect is QB64 Phoenix Edition (QBasic-compatible, structured, no line numbers), with side-by-side notes for classic line-numbered BASIC, FreeBASIC, and Visual Basic .NET. Topics include history, setup, variables and types, operators, console I/O, control flow, SUBs and FUNCTIONs, arrays, user-defined types, strings, math, DATA statements, error handling, file I/O, graphics, sound, keyboard and mouse input, game loops, algorithms and data structures, memory and pointers, modular programming, debugging, FreeBASIC OOP, VB.NET, VBA, Microsoft Small Basic, other modern dialects, complete projects, and capstones. Every chapter has runnable examples and exercises.

Course Map

Part I — Foundations Introduction to BASIC A Brief History of BASIC

Tools & Environment Setup (QB64-PE, FreeBASIC) Your First Program Classic Line-Numbered BASIC Variables, Type Suffixes & Data Types Constants, Operators & Expressions Console Input & Output Decisions: IF and SELECT CASE Loops: FOR, WHILE, DO Part II — Core Language SUBs & FUNCTIONs Parameters, Scope & Recursion Strings & String Functions Math Functions & Random Numbers DATA, READ & RESTORE Sequential File I/O Binary & Random-Access Files Structured Programming Style Part III — Advanced

Graphics Fundamentals: SCREEN, PSET, LINE, CIRCLE, PAINT, DRAW

Modern QB64 Graphics: Images, Sprites & Double Buffering Keyboard & Mouse Input Timing & Game Loop Design Algorithms: Sorting & Searching Recursion & Data Structures

Memory & Pointers: VARPTR, PEEK/POKE, _MEM Modular Programs & Libraries

Command Line, Environment & System Access Part IV — Dialects, Ecosystem & Real-World FreeBASIC In Depth Visual Basic.NET VBA: Automating Microsoft Office Microsoft Small Basic for Beginners Other Modern Dialects Porting Classic Code to Modern BASIC Best Practices & Common Pitfalls

Appendices: Cheat Sheet, Keywords, Built-ins, Dialect Comparison, History, Resources, Study Plan