Is there an easy way to program the Wii (BASIC)?

Has anybody made a BASIC programing language that will compile Wii executables (boot.ELF files)? I know that QBASIC and Visual BASIC will compile PC executables (EXE files). But is there a Wii BASIC anywhere?

No, people who code for it has to stick with a language that is still considered alive. Just learn c++, the basics shouldn't take long to learn, the rest is just misc extension rules.

I'm sure someone could write a Basic interpreter for the Wii, but that person would not be me ;). It would be a cool little project but ultimately pointless; Basic is just too limited that there isn't much interesting stuff you could do with it on the Wii anyway. You'd be better off just learning C++.

Why do people always look for the easy language? Learn a proper one like C++ or C# and make proper games.

BASIC is actually still somewhat alive (Liberty BASIC), but it's really just useless since it lacks versatility and portability. What you should learn is C++. It can work just like basic if you want it to. And much of the syntax is sorta similiarish. The great thing about C++ is its portability, all commercial videogames, and videogame consoles are programmed with it. It's portability also gives us acces to other people's framework (libraries).

Before C++, I was originally taught Liberty BASIC "in order to get a get a grasp on the fundamentals of programming". I didn't find it too hard to switch, and besides for nostalgia will probably never go back to it. C++ in 21 days and C++ for dummies are highly reccomended books to help get you started.

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WiiPhlex
Why do people always look for the easy language? Learn a proper one like C++ or C# and make proper games.

I hate people bashing BASIC as if it's not a proper language. Depending which flavour of BASIC you pick up, you can do almost everything in it that you can do in C, C++, and C#. Also, C#.NET and VB.NET they compile to the same thing regardless of language, but I find it faster to implement in VB.NET.

@VideoGamer: Actually, I have had an idea about producing a WiiBASIC, but I've not done anything on it yet

BASIC isn't a proper language. You can do everything that C++ can do in many languages, but there will definately be some over head and lack of some feature, just learn C++

You all are confusing what I said. You seem to think I want BASIC that would run BAS files on the Wii. I NEVER said that. I said I want a BASIC that AFTER one writes their program in the BASIC, they could then compile a boot.elf file (instead of the more typical *.EXE file).

Oh, i got that, but basic still sucks.

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Videogamer
You all are confusing what I said. You seem to think I want BASIC that would run BAS files on the Wii. I NEVER said that. I said I want a BASIC that AFTER one writes their program in the BASIC, they could then compile a boot.elf file (instead of the more typical *.EXE file).

So you're gonna do all that work just to make and play text applications or primitive graphics applications?

To be fair, basic can call functions. Functions like those in c.

@henke37
yes, but only via goto. C functions are alot cleaner.

Uhm, you must be using some really stale variant of basic, even before windows was created, qbasic had them.

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Arikado
@henke37
yes, but only via goto. C functions are alot cleaner.

That's rubbish. Also, in C you have to declare functions twice, once as a "prototype", and the other with the code.

Liberty basic was what I used. It didn't have functions (its also possible that I was never taught them).

There are plenty of variants of BASIC, and I agree, some only had GOTO and GOSUB (which are what functions technically are anyway).

QBASIC/QuickBASIC definately had them

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Arikado
So you're gonna do all that work just to make and play text applications or primitive graphics applications?

Why do you assume you'll only be able to do "primitive graphics" in BASIC? I saw a 3D engine written in QuickBASIC by Ken Silverman (The guy who wrote BUILD for Duke3D etc.) and it was by no means sluggish. I've also seen QuickBASIC programs loading in bitmaps and drawing to the screen, so you can get your "Advanced" graphical displays.

Anyway, This is going too far off-topic, so I'm not going to debate any more on BASIC as a language. So back on topic...

@VideoGamer: Why would you want to code a BAS file on PC and copy it across? Considering the Wii can support a USB keyboard, you might as well include it all on the device (although that wouldn't stop you from coding on the PC and copying it over).

However, what you might be after more than WiiBASIC like I was imagining, was probably a BASIC to C converter so you could write your BAS file, run a program on the PC to convert it to C, link in all the necessary libraries (Wiimote, Network, GRRLib etc.) and compile your ELF file.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2008 08:39PM by whodares.

@whodares
Yes, but who would waste the time to write a long program to get past graphic primitives? As you also said this getting offtopic.

Bottom line Videogamer: Move forward with C++ instead of backward with BASIC. I'm done posting on this topic.

Or waste some time with lua

@whodares
You don't have to add a prototype for a function in C or C++ if it is declared before the main method.

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whodares
There are plenty of variants of BASIC, and I agree, some only had GOTO and GOSUB (which are what functions technically are anyway).

QBASIC/QuickBASIC definately had them

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Arikado
So you're gonna do all that work just to make and play text applications or primitive graphics applications?

Why do you assume you'll only be able to do "primitive graphics" in BASIC? I saw a 3D engine written in QuickBASIC by Ken Silverman (The guy who wrote BUILD for Duke3D etc.) and it was by no means sluggish. I've also seen QuickBASIC programs loading in bitmaps and drawing to the screen, so you can get your "Advanced" graphical displays.

Anyway, This is going too far off-topic, so I'm not going to debate any more on BASIC as a language. So back on topic...

@VideoGamer: Why would you want to code a BAS file on PC and copy it across? Considering the Wii can support a USB keyboard, you might as well include it all on the device (although that wouldn't stop you from coding on the PC and copying it over).

However, what you might be after more than WiiBASIC like I was imagining, was probably a BASIC to C converter so you could write your BAS file, run a program on the PC to convert it to C, link in all the necessary libraries (Wiimote, Network, GRRLib etc.) and compile your ELF file.

What I imagined was NOT a version of BASIC to run on the Wii. I imagined a version of basic that would run on the computer. Then when you compiled the program from basic, it would produce a boot.elf file with Wii compatible code (turn the BASIC commands into Wii commands and write them to a boot.elf file). Then you would just put that boot.elf file on the SD card, put it in the Wii and start your own homebrew program from the Homebrew Channel on the Wii.

The actual BASIC programming language would NEVER NEVER NEVER have to run on the Wii.

Now does everyone see what I'm talking about? (if so then this is a hint that I would like someone to make this form of BASIC, so I can start making my own homebrew apps for Wii without having to learn C or any other programing language, because I'm already VERY knowledgeable in BASIC and VisualBASIC, but I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how to program in C or any other programing language)