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Ok I suspect it may be pointless to post here considering the bad rap that BASIC gets. I have a fair amount of BASIC experience in instrument control. I started out with Commodore BASIC and moved up through QBASIC and Quick BASIC (yes there is a difference) and through Visual BASIC 6.0. BASIC is the only language I know. I've been told that it is or at least has been the number one choice of languages for instrument control. I have to admit it has pretty much done everything I need it to. However, I have run into a situation where I need to do a few things that I'm not sure if BASIC can handle. I'm considering Visual Basic 2005.
1) I need to record and play back a short audio track from time to time. Also needs to use the serial port. From what I can tell on Microsoft's site this is not a problem.
2) It would be nice, but not necessary to be able to make the PC reboot from within the application.
3) It would be nice to be able to terminate other applications from within this application.
4) The application would require a very small amount of PC resources and is aimed at a hobby market. It seems that this market demographic boasts a large number of surplus computers at a very affordable price. I can't tell so far whether Visual Basic 2005 allows its applications to run on older machines. Web site doesn't say.
I'm not against learning C, in fact, would really like to but I don't feel like I have the time to do it right now. I don't really buy into the stuff about BASIC being a crappy language because it allows for so many sloppy habits. As far as I am concerned a good programmer should recognize sloppy habits and avoid this type of coding regardless of what language. I'll agree, it is a limited language by nature, but that is a shortcoming of the programmer not recognizing this fact (quite possibly me) and trying to do the equivalent of driving a Yugo into a sharp turn at 120 MPH. It's just something it wasn't designed to do. Kind of a ballsy statement from a lowly BASIC programmer, but I still stand by it.
So, what should I do? You know the requirements and I don't really have the time to learn a new language at this time. Please consider this.
1) I need to record and play back a short audio track from time to time. Also needs to use the serial port. From what I can tell on Microsoft's site this is not a problem.
2) It would be nice, but not necessary to be able to make the PC reboot from within the application.
3) It would be nice to be able to terminate other applications from within this application.
4) The application would require a very small amount of PC resources and is aimed at a hobby market. It seems that this market demographic boasts a large number of surplus computers at a very affordable price. I can't tell so far whether Visual Basic 2005 allows its applications to run on older machines. Web site doesn't say.
I'm not against learning C, in fact, would really like to but I don't feel like I have the time to do it right now. I don't really buy into the stuff about BASIC being a crappy language because it allows for so many sloppy habits. As far as I am concerned a good programmer should recognize sloppy habits and avoid this type of coding regardless of what language. I'll agree, it is a limited language by nature, but that is a shortcoming of the programmer not recognizing this fact (quite possibly me) and trying to do the equivalent of driving a Yugo into a sharp turn at 120 MPH. It's just something it wasn't designed to do. Kind of a ballsy statement from a lowly BASIC programmer, but I still stand by it.
So, what should I do? You know the requirements and I don't really have the time to learn a new language at this time. Please consider this.
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