Visual Basic 6

[Bill D]

Hi,

 

Im a retired engineer (74 y/o) and cant afford the $450 for a copy of Visual Basic 6. Last time I used basic was Q Basic. Anyway, I have Dell 64 bit, Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

Any suggestions on getting a used copy somewhere or some how ? I don't need games, etc. just pure math programming. I'm writing a book on 'Approximate Calculus'

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Bill D

[John Cuthber]

Did you know that there's a version of Visual Basic (strictly VBA) tucked away in Excel?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee814737(v=office.14).aspx

[Bignose]

If you have a copy of MS Office, you effectively have VB6, because the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that comes as the macro language in Excel, Word, etc. is almost identical to VB6.

 

Otherwise, asking the forum how to effectively pirate software isn't really cool.

 

Actually, even worse than that... the 2012 version of VB is free from Microsoft's own website. http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads#d-express-windows-desktop

 

Furthermore, since you haven't used basic since QBasic, I would think that you aren't necessarily wedded to basic, so you can use almost any other compiler. Like GNU C, or python, or ruby, etc.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Bignose

[Sensei]

Why do you want to use Basic?

They're interpreted, not compiled (unless something changed the last time I used Atari Basic).

Math needs efficiency. Visual Studio Express C/C++ is free, and allows making the fastest code.

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/plk/downloads#d-express-web

or simply enter "visual studio express" in google.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Sensei

[Bill D]

Thanks All,

 

Thanks John. Thanks Bignose and BTW wasn't interested in anything illegal here. Thanks Sensi. I thought maybe there was a half price sale somewhere.

I will checkout the Microsoft 2012 version on Bignose's link. Have a nice day.

 

Bill

[Strange]

Visual Studio Express is free and supports Visual Basic (as far as I can tell)

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-for-windows-desktop#product-express-desktop

 

However, there are better languages than Basic to use....

 

Sorry, just noticed that others have said the same.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Strange

[John Cuthber]

"Better languages" is a phrase that needs clarification.

Like a lot of nerdy teenagers in the 80's I learned to program computers in BASIC.

Then I studied chemistry and worked as a chemist for 20 odd years. Then I got a job with to a lot of data processing and analysis and it's impossible to do that by hand- you need a computer.

Well, I was 45 or so, an old enough dog not to want to learn new tricks, so I wasn't planning to learn a new language just because someone has written it and so I took to using VBA .

I know it's not fast, it certainly isn't modern. And it's a bit of a pig to get it to do some things- but it always was, and I learned how to do that decades ago so it's not such a problem.

 

I was wanting to fire up a computer and get it to do something, I was much happier starting with something which at least has some resemblance to the stuff I had used in the past.

So, if the OP is starting back into the world of programming at 74, BASIC''s descendents might be the best choice- there might not be " better languages than Basic". at least for starters.

[EdEarl]

There are many free languages, at least as good a Visual Basic. Maybe you should look into SMath Studio, which is similar to MathCAD, and has a programming language built into it. It is free and runs on Windows. I've downloaded it and used it a little, and found no critical errors AFAIK; although, it probably is not as good as MathCAD.

Edited October 12, 2013 by EdEarl

[doG]

Im a retired engineer (74 y/o) and cant afford the $450 for a copy of Visual Basic 6. Last time I used basic was Q Basic.

 

Today's languages are not the procedural languages that QBasic is, now they are object oriented so you'll be learning a new language and methodology than was common in that era. For today's machines object oriented languages offer a lot more flexibility and power but program flow is very different.

 

As pointed out by others, Visual Studio Express supports current versions of Visual Basic, C++ and C Sharp for Windows and it's free. These are all object oriented.

 

FreeBasic supports QBasic and allows one to access C libraries with Basic. It is probably one of the closest languages to what you were used to.

 

GCC is another free compiler that can be used with support for many languages like C, C++ and Fortran, which was designed for math. I believe Fortran95 was the last iteration that was procedural oriented though. SilverFrost offers a free version that is integrated with Visual Studio Express that you may find useful.

[Bill D]

I thought I would provide you with the successful resolution to my visual basic problem. The winner that resolved my dilemma was doG. I investigated, loaded and am now using FreeBasic on my Dell 64 bit computer (Windows 7) It is a free code and am well into developing programs that are running just fine. So, all that replied many thank you's. You all made my day, and saved me $450 because I didn't have to purchase the VisualBasic6. Anyone else that wants a great basic program go to www.FreeBasic.com

 

Bill D