Install and use JustBasic

If you begin in programming and if you want to realize Windows programs with the Basic language, do you know that the development environment Justbasic is very easy to install and to use ? To the date of writing these lines, it can be free downloaded (freeware license) on the editor web site (http://www justbasic com)

Download and install Justbasic

From the editor web site, download the file "jbwin101 exe" on your hard disk, then click him to start the installation. By default, the product installs himself in the directory "C:\Program Files\Just BASIC v1.01". Click the "Start" button and this is all...!

The installation is quasi-instantaneously ( about 2 to 3 seconds ...). This is very cool, to an epoch where many products require install procedures relatively long and complicate... Click the "OK" button. The product is installed in the directory "C:\Program Files\Just BASIC v1.01\jbasic.exe"

Create a first programme

We will realize a very short first programme, just to see how things work. Start Justbasic from the Start menu of Windows.

Delete what is in the editor window and type only the three following code lines :

print "bonjour !"
wait
end

Save the file with the name "essai.bas" in a directory "C:/essai" for instance .

Execute the file, clicking the menu option "Run/Run". The programme runs.

Play to do more complicated programs, with help of the documentation (and the examples ".bas") associated to the product.

Prepare a standalone program

Justbasic can realize stanalone programs. By "standalone program" we think program which can work on any computer with or without Justbasic installed. The standalone generated programs are "royalty free". In the "Help" index of JustBasic type "tkn" and you will find all detailed informations upon this subject.

To prepare a standalone program, you must to:

1) Begin to generate a file "tkn". For that click the menu option "Make *.tkn file". Save, in your directory "C:/essai", the "tkn" file (generated by JustBasic) giving him the name "essai.tkn".

2) Recopy in the directory "C:/essai" the hereafter indicated files who are in the "C:\Program Files\Just BASIC v1.01" directory. Those files constitute a royalty-free "Runtime". They must be necessarily associated to your executable "essai.tkn" if you want a standalone executable.

3) Once this files are copied in the "C:/essai" directory, rename the file "jbrun101.exe" and give him the name of your program, so is it "essai.exe" in our example. At last of this operation, following files must be in the "C:/essai" directory :

Click the file "essai.exe" and your program run standalone now. To install this program on another computer, it suffices to copy on this computer the "C:/essai" directory and his content. It is to note that the presence of the source file "essai.bas" is not necessary to the execution. At your choice, you can then suppress him or let him in the directory, if you prefer.