AboutAlex Barry Expertise I have been a qbasic programmer since 2000, creating games, minor libraries and various small programs. I have experience using interrupts, graphics, file input/output, the mouse cursor, and using libraries. I have also learned FreeBASIC, c/c++, python, php and html.
I do not claim to be an absolute authority in any language, but I don't mind looking things up and learning with you.
Experience Hobby programming since 2000
I no longer belong to any community programming groups, but do have knowledge of *basic dialects and C/C++
This is version 4.5, and probably the most common version. I will say that, although Microsoft does not monitor QBasic distribution, it is technically illegal. I doubt you'll experience any problems, as it is incredibly old, and not worth Microsoft's time to do something about it, i want to mention the legal warning first.
Now, if you want a legal and free version of basic (notice not "Q"basic), that is essentially the same, other than it is compiled (opposed to interpreted) and it can handle gcc compatible libraries (like OpenGL if you were into 3d programming, or common c/c++ libraries), meanwhile keeping as close to qbasic syntax as possible. If that interests you, there are two main projects:
QB64 - The fellow that is programming this is trying to make the code as close to QBasic as possible. Almost 90% of the QBasic keywords and commands are the same, with the same syntax. http://www.qb64.net/
FreeBASIC - a more popular and community based QBasic implementation, but it is not quite as similar in syntax to qbasic. this one isn't as buggy, from what I understand, but it may have improved since I last heard. http://www.freebasic.net/
There are other *basic implementations, which you could probably find if you search google/read a few web forums, but I think these are probably your best options.
