Filed for future reference.
On Mon, 2005-02-07 at 21:25 +1300, Jim Cheetham wrote:
> From the sound of the description, I'd say that bwbasic would be your
> best start. It claims to have a large set of features, as well as the
> ability to make system calls to Linux command-line tools. That would
> probably be an excellent way for you to use the skills you already have
> in order to learn more about Linux :-)
>
> You won't get the GUI stuff, but everything else should be there.
>
> After a bit of a play with that, you might want to consider trying a
> more modern language. The question gets answered in about a dozen
> different ways each time that it's asked :-) but I suspect python might
> be a good one - there are books available on the subject (more so than
> Ruby, for example) and it has a much more reliable structure than perl.
> PHP can be used from the command-line, but most of the books on the
> subject will deal with web-based usage only, and for the older and more
> randomly structured PHP4 or earlier (I have it on good authority that
> PHP5 is "good" :-). Java I'm not too sure how to summarise, but I've
> never felt comfortable with it (mind you, I'm not a developer). C, C++
> and C# ... I'd say that these are best avoided until you know why you
> have to use them :-)
>
> There are still gazillions of other interesting languages with
> wonderful existences (Smalltalk, Lisp, Logo, TCL, Haskell, even Ook :-)
> but unless you're generally interested in computer languages because of
> the types of problems they can solve, I'd advise you to leave them well
> alone for a while :-)
>
> -jim
>
> On Feb 7, 2005, at 5:05 PM, Lindsay wrote:
> > mid-90's. Basically (not a pun), I still use the original basic
> > language I learned (self-taught,) but add in the graphical features and
> > a bit (5% maybe) of the newer Visual Basic language.
> >
> > Would the former of those below give me some 'starting point' to 'play'
> > with in Ubuntu with my limited expertise?
>
> >> universe/bwbasic:
> >> Description: Bywater BASIC Interpreter
> >> The Bywater BASIC Interpreter (bwBASIC) implements a large superset
> >> of
> >> the ANSI Standard for Minimal BASIC (X3.60-1978) and a significant
> >> subset of the ANSI Standard for Full BASIC (X3.113-1987) in C. It
> >> also
> >> offers shell programming facilities as an extension of BASIC.
> >> bwBASIC
> >> seeks to be as portable as possible.
>
>
>
