need help finding a suitable language with IDE

[weltall]

Back in the day I was completely and utterly submerged in the QBasic scene. I had made a demo program of a role playing game that was compromised of levels/floors, characters and sprites, ect. and would love to be able to continue and finish what I had started. Since my operating system of choice of course is Linux (I used Mepis right now) I need some help finding a suitable language that is close to QBasic or is not very far from. (it could be completely different if it was an easy transition)

I need something that basically works with the equivalent of the COLOR x, x syntax, prints to the screen, and can input keyboard typing... ect.

but I need it to have an IDE so that I can debug. I really do miss the QBasic days, and hope there is something out there open source that is similar with a GUI IDE (is there a literal translation of MS-DOS 6.22 QBasic for linux? lol)

If nothing exists, what would you guys think? Perl? C? C++? I want to be able to write in a programming language that is less frustrating and difficult than what C or C++ appears to be... any help would be appreciated.

~

[likwid]

All languages can do what you want, but it's probably easiest to do in Python. I use Komodo for Development, because it has the pimpest debugger ever and the editor can emulate vi. It costs money, well worth the 50$ I spent on a student license. If you're not a student though it's pretty expensive, but there are other free Python IDE's that seem pretty popular. Do a google for it, I recall reading a few comparisons.

[weltall]

k. will do.

if Python is what I'm looking for, a $50 student fee is no biggie. I'll check it out.

mainly I just need a SCREEN 0 equivelent, with foreground and background text color manipulation to print ASCII charecters. I've got some dandy old-school ideas raging through my head, and with what I remember I had programmed from before, making the game I want shouldn't be too hard if I can find the right language and a supportive IDE.

thanks

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[weltall]

groovy. think you might have come up with the right solution to my problem.

Byte of Python:Main Page - Text

took a look at that, pulled up Konsole, and typed python to see if Mepis had it installed. sure nuff. now to grab some nice IDE.

thanks

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[daark.child]

ERIC is a good free python IDE if you are interested in going the Python route.

[likwid]

Yea, python comes with all modern distros AFAIK. Just to clear things up, Python is free. Komodo is an IDE developed by ActiveState that has smart editing for tons of languages, and integrated debugging with Python, Ruby, JS, and other stuff. It's targeted towards the "Dynamic" languages but it is very powerful and I actually use it for C development also. You just have to contact them with your student ID and give them a little information about your school to get the student price. If you're not a student it'll cost ya 350.

[weltall]

I've already downloaded and installed the debian package for WingIDE 101, which I think should suffice for me in what I need it for as well as to get me started on the basics. After a bit of time in it and developing some stuff, if I need advanced features I can look into purchasing a more enabled version. thanks for the help though.

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[danbuter]

If you're going the Python route, I recommend the Eric IDE. It's free, and it does pretty much everything I need it to do.

[weltall]

I'm a little more than halfway done creating one of the projects I had in mind. It's a mouse, point and click interface... using the keyboard to input letters/numbers/symbols and the mouse to input cursor location and clicking buttons. This enables myself to more easily make and edit drawings and signatures made from text. It also has background and foreground color selection as well. (think MSPAINT for ASCII)

Just simple banners in a monospace font can be done in Notepad or Kate or many others, but hey, this is neat, fun, and ALOT quicker to make them. Maybe there's something else out there alot similar in function, but there's nothing wrong in doing something on your own. Also including color and the ability to function as a map/scene generator for my oldschool style game I've got brewing. (Imagine Squaresoft having made Chrono Trigger in ASCII... something like that. I was pretty damn far in making the game like that before I got out of programming in Qbasic.)

About the only thing left to do is program the operation to write the contents to a file. There will need to be two types... a direct copy of what is on the screen, and one that includes the two color variables for each point on the grid plus the symbol that goes in that space.



(This also serves a purpose for creating the map levels for the game I have in mind. This is a cooler clone of something I did when I was 15, but lost the files... It will be more professional when I'm done. Figure about another two hours or so to get something satisfactory working, a couple days to figure out how to make it look professional and then compile it to a DOS executable and distribute.)

BTW - I might port it to something else, but I figured go with what I knew for now... until it's finished. I've already got around 100 lines of code (in about two hours) of all stuff I remember from about 6 years of abstinence in programming. (mouse routines are assembly. wee.) So I made my usb key bootable to DOS.

So, Once I'm done I'll try and port it. That will be the *actual* learning part.