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• Saturday, September 16, 2006 02:38 AM

  What is your problem ?

  Ok.. In order for me to get a Basic interpreter/compiler installed, I:

  1. click on System->Administration->Synaptic package manager

  2. give my password

  3. click on search - use the search term "basic"

  4. select bwbasic or yabasic

  5. click apply

  Synaptic now proceeds with downloading and installing a perfectly ok Basic interpreter.

  Does this sound difficult ?

  Using google, I quickly found:

  - free BASIC interpreter: http://www.freebasic.net/index.php/download

  - free emulator that would have saved you from having to buy the C64: http://www.viceteam.org/

  - another free BASIC interpreter: http://blassic.org/

  Note that "yabasic" (from step 4 - above) is short for "Yet Another BASIC interpreter" - we're hardly talking about a shortage of BASIC interpreters here...

  I'm guessing that your problem stems from you searching for an alternative among commerial programs for the Windows platform.

  Learning is definately NOT something that you should attempt on the Windows platform. If you want the tools needed to gain knowledge - you need to take a look at the opensource community.

  My advice:

  1. Go to: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ and order a free bootable Ubuntu CD - alternatively, download it yourself from www.ubuntu.com

  2. Install Ubuntu linux - something that nowadays is significantly easier than installing Windows from scratch.

  3. Follow steps 1-5 above.

  .. the alternative is to have your sons learning process dictated by the the marketing choices made by various SW-producing corporations.

  —bwana
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