Basic is not a compiled language as opposed to Visual Basic (VB). The
source is "interpreted" at run time. IOW: Virtually any DOS machine will
run BASIC. Emulators?
BASIC is very easy to understand. Rewriting from BASIC to VB is
"usually" a relatively easy task, although some programmers can write
some rather obtuse code that defies understanding. VB uses the Dynamic
Linked Libraries (DLLs) present in windows making the compiled version
much larger than the source code.
If written in BASIC, it's likely it wasn't written by a professional
programmer. Figure out what it's doing, flow chart it, and then code it
in VB.
I doubt it's more than a couple pages long. Few "BASIC" programs were.
BASIC = Beginning All Purpose Instruction Code.
It would likely be easy to redo the entire thing in Visual Basic and
then compiled. It then it "should" run on most flavors of Windows
although I'd not go for any older than XP.
If the BASIC simulators have problems. I'd rewrite and compile it on XP
if available and hope for the best. Otherwise all that is necessary is
to run the rewritten source code through a VB compiler on that version
of Windows.
NOTE: The compilers that come in instruction books, normally do not
write portable code. The compiled result will run only on that computer.
I wrote a rather elaborate search program in VB for the big fly-in at
Oshkosh (Now called Airventure). When I went to install it on their
computer, I discovered that I hadn't brought the correct disks. I could
fly back home and retrieve the correct disks at 4 hours in a Bonanza
burning 14.5 gallons of Av Gas per hour, or write it, starting from
scratch. I rewrote about 10 pages of source code and compiled it in
about a day and a half. If you do it for a living, it's "normally" not
a big deal.
Yes I have a BS in CS with a Math minor, plus work toward a Masters. A
good job offer ended that.
73
Roger (K8RI)
On 10/12/2016 Wednesday 8:04 AM, Bryan Fields wrote:
On 10/11/16 12:57 PM, K7LXC--- via TowerTalk wrote:
I sell a little app for mast calculations called MARC (Mast, Antenna
and Rotator Calculator) and it was written in ye olde days of DOS. It has an
early version for Windows as well but doesn't work on any current
operating systems. Is there someone out that could update it for me? I don't
know
what's involved but will be willing to pay for your efforts. Tnx.
Why not open source it? I doubt it will be easy to port it vs. a complete
rewrite if it's a compiled basic program.
73's
--
73
Roger (K8RI)
---
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