This particular web page is not copyright.
If you have succeeded in installing and running QBasic, which we recommend you to try first, then you only need to be able to install a batch compiler for the big number-crunchers like the relativistic flight simulator and the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability. Otherwise don't bother! Read no further! If you have already installed PKZIP, then there is also no point in continuing unless you fancy a challenge.
If you don't have QBasic or PKZIP available, but you do have Microsoft QuickBasic 4.5 or Visual Basic for DOS, then read on. You could install either of these as an interpreter like QBasic, but perhaps you had memory problems when you tried it.
OK, we will tell you how to install QuickBasic 4.5 in compile-and-go mode (Visual Basic for DOS is much the same with appropriate changes). You will need to have a batch file like
copy %1 go.bas c:\qb45\bc go /e/v/w/x; c:\qb45\link go,,,c:\qb45\brun45.lib; go.exe
A copy of this batch file is available below. Download it and save it as GO45.BAT in the root directory of your C: drive, as C:\GO45.BAT. You can find instructions on how to do this wherever you see something like
which you can see at the top of this page. Note that the file GO45.BAT has been temporarily renamed GO45.TXT to conform to the Internet naming convention. Its true name is GO45.BAT and it is a BATch file. Click on the 'back' or 'backward' button on your web browser when you have finished with GO45.BAT.
With Visual Basic for DOS, you should instead use
Note that we are assuming that QuickBasic 4.5 is held in the directory C:\QB45 or that Visual Basic is held in C:\VBDOS. If you have them stored somewhere else, then you will need to make the appropriate changes to all the path names in GO45.BAT or GOVB.BAT.
You will need to install GO45.BAT as a 'viewer' in your web browser. If you try to download a program like RFS.BAS without doing this, you will get a message about the MIME type
application/octet-stream
There is no need to worry about what a MIME type is or what this computerspeak actually means. You only need to know how to plug it in to the QuickBasic 4.5 batch compiler.
The author is running Mosaic as a browser, which he got free with his CompuServe subscription. From Mosaic select Tools, then Options, then File Types and then New. Then type in 'application/octet-stream' and click on OK. In the Extensions: window enter .bas (note the stop or period before the 'bas'). Position the cursor in the Program: window and select Browse. Look for GO45.BAT. It is presumably
C:\GO45.BAT
Then click on OK. Click on OK again and you should be back in Mosaic. You have now installed GO45.BAT as a viewer and associated it with 'application/octet-stream'. You never needed to know what this 'MIME type' meant.
Of course, if you already had QBasic installed as your viewer, then installing GO45.BAT is a simple editing job. You cannot have both QBasic and QuickBasic 4.5 installed at the same time.
If you are running some other browser you will need to do something similar, though the fact that you are using something else suggests that you know what you are doing anyway. This ability to install a viewer is a basic skill which is worth acquiring, so please persevere if you have difficulties. If the reported MIME type is not 'application/octet-stream' then please report this to the author on 100425.3501@compuserve.com so that he can collect information on this topic. Any other information would be appreciated.
When you click on the RFS.BAS file, it will be downloaded, and GO45 will be started up automatically. Once RFS.EXE has been generated, it will be executed at once. Press ESC to exit at any time.
Once execution is finished, you may find in an operating system like Windows 95 that you are left in a DOS box. Find 'properties' and click on it. Set auto-exit and full screen mode according to taste. Click on the X box at top right to exit. When you run another BAS file, you will find that you never see the DOS box again.
Once a program is running, it is suggested that you exit pretty quickly with the ESC key, to make sure that your telephone is disconnected. If you know how to manipulate your dialling program, well and good, but don't run up telephone bills larger than you have to. You will see that the link to the BAS file has changed colour to indicate its local availability. When you click on the link again, it is compiled and run again. Maybe someone can think of a way to avoid a second compilation, but then we are trying to keep things simple.
Another good reason to make sure your telephone is disconnected is that servicing the dialling program may slow down your computer. One thing you can try is to start up a program like RFS.BAS in an operating system like Windows 95, and then press Ctrl-Esc. Close all other tasks including both the dialler (if necessary) and the web browser (you can indeed close a web browser such as Mosaic even though that was where you started). Then select RFS again from the task bar. You may now have a faster-running program. Try it and see.
An EXE file can be compiled from any language, not just QuickBasic 4.5. If you have some programs and were wondering what to do with them, well now you can publish them on the Internet together with instructions like this. For this reason, this particular web page is not copyright. Pinch it and re-edit it to your requirements. An acknowledgement will suffice. Note that a program written in something like Borland Turbo Pascal will need to be contained in a single file. You might have developed it using modules, but for distribution it needs to be converted to single-file mode. You ought to provide both Pascal source code and PKZIPped object code.
If you want to save BAS files elsewhere, for example on drive A as suggested in the page on the Virtual Internet, then you will need to temporarily delete the application/octet-stream from the File Types. It is easy to restore afterwards. Do not of course delete GO45.BAT. You only have to disconnect it.