I am sure this must be a FAQ??  I am not normally a user of BASIC or
a reader of this group.  Please post replies to me directly.

I have inherited a few old BASICA programs which I would like to
get up in QBASIC.  They are not even readable in normal ASCII.
Is there a utility, or obvious way of converting them?

Peter Clayton

: I am sure this must be a FAQ??  I am not normally a user of BASIC or
: a reader of this group.  Please post replies to me directly.
:    
: I have inherited a few old BASICA programs which I would like to
: get up in QBASIC.  They are not even readable in normal ASCII.
: Is there a utility, or obvious way of converting them?

: Peter Clayton
go read the help in qbasic... they teach u how to convert

as in case, u load the required basic program into the basica
environment, then save it with the command

save "filename.asc",a

the "a" at the back force it to be saved as a ascii readable file

the extension .asc is to prevent ur original .bas from being overwritten

then run qbasic filename.asc

for more info.. read the help in qbasic :)
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Peter,
         There is a utility that will convert them and remove list
protection.  I don't know where you would find it perhaps someone else
can tell you that.
       If a program was not protected when it was originally saved (so it
can't be listed) than saving it as an ASCII file is as simple as loading
it into GWBASIC or BASICA and then saving it again with the ,a option.

 e.g. save "files.bas", a or save "file" ,a  

The second quotes are necessary.  If the file can't be listed or if you
don't have a copy of GWBASIC or BASICA then you would need the utility.

-

-

Dear Prof. Calyton,

you can use BASICA interpreter to save you programs with the A option to
convert them into ASCII format from the defualt binary compressed format.
Then you can load them into QBASIC directly. To save them, type
SAVE"myfile.bas",A and hit return.

Best regards
Haitham

From the FAQ

6. QUESTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
How do I un-protect a GW-Basic program saved with the ',P' switch?

6. ANSWER
~~~~~~~~~
A short program to do this can be found at:-
ftp://simtel/msdos/basic/unpbass11.zip

7. QUESTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
How do I import a GW-Basic program into QuickBasic (or any other
dialect).

7. ANSWER
~~~~~~~~~
If you have a copy of GWBASIC, load your source file and save with the
',A' switch (SAVE "PROGNAME.BAS",A).

If you don't have GWBASIC, then
ftp://simtel/msdos/basic/rb58.zip should do the job. Written by V.Buerg

<NOTE:- These answers probably apply to BASICA also? Someone try it for me:)>

Hope this helps
--
Douggie
         sig _finally_ got it's own place (Nice little hole in't road)