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                          QBasic Basics                  
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                        By: Michael Cooney 
                       stalfos45@hotmail.com
                       last update: 10/5/99


     Contents
     ---------
	Why learn QBasic?
        Hello World
        Variables
        Getting Input
        Conclusion


=====================================================================
 Why learn QBasic?
=====================================================================

Obviously you already know the answer to this question, or you 
wouldn't be reading this. But just for fun, I'll give you my 
explaination.

QBasic is a very easy language in comparison to some of the more 
popular ones (C, C++). Since its syntax is closer to english than 
most languages, it is reffered to as a Low Level lenguage, while 
something like C++ is Higher Level. QBasic is perfect for people who 
are just starting to learn programing. Hence the name; which stands 
for Begginers All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. After mastering 
QBasic it will make it much easier to learn a higher level language, 
where you may be able to get a job. 

I hope this has provided you with some insight and encouragement to 
start learning.


=====================================================================
 Hello World 
=====================================================================

If you've ever tried learning a programing language before, you've
probobly come across an example like this. Where the line "Hello 
World" is simply printed out to the screen. It's obviously a good 
place to start if it's used so often. So here we go. Type this into 
qbasic and hit f5:

CLS
PRINT "Hello World"
END

Woah, fhew.. that was hard, eh? Well, not really. CLS stands for 
clear screen, you can guess what the rest does. Try omitting the CLS
just to see what happens. It will show the DOS prompt and whatever 
you've been doing in DOS. 

That's all for this example. That was an easy one. Next we will 
experiment with variables.


=====================================================================
 Variables
=====================================================================

Variables are a very imprortant part to programing. They allow you to 
store a string (text), or an integer in the computers memory to call
on later. Here's an example:

CLS
name$ = "Mike"
PRINT name$
END

The second line creates a variable called name then assings it the 
value Mike. The $ means that this variable is a string. The third 
line simply prints the value of the variable name$ to the screen.  

Ok, if $ means string, then what symbol is used for integer? Well 
there are acctually two different types of integers. The first can
either use a % in place of the $, or you can use nothing at all. 
This type of integer has a range of -32767 to 32767. The symbol for 
the second type of integer is &. This is a Long Integer and it has a
range of -2 billion to 2 billion. 

Try out this program:

CLS
value1 = 2
value2 = 2
answer = value1 + value2
PRINT answer
END

Neat, huh?


=====================================================================
 Getting Input
=====================================================================

You can't make a useful program without getting some sort of input 
from the user. First I'll give the code and then an explaination.

CLS
INPUT "What is your name"; yourname$
PRINT "Hello " yourname$ ". How are you?"
END

I bet you can figure this one out too. INPUT tells the computer to 
get ready for input, the ; ends the text printed asking the user for
input, yourname is the name of the variable the input is stored in 
and the $ tells the computer what type of input to expect (as 
discussed in the previous section). Notice that when you asked 
"What is your name" there was no question mark. QBasic automatically
adds it when the program is run. Also notice that on the third line
when you want to print the variable you have to end the quotation 
marks and begin them again when you want to print something following
the variable. 


=====================================================================
 Conclusion
=====================================================================

Hopefully, now you know the basics of QBasic and you can write a 
decent program, but things will start cooking up in the next tutorial
when I'll teach you about using files to store and retrieve data.

I encourage you to practice using the things you learned here and 
always experiment. You'll never learn if you don't. 

Until next time,
Michael Cooney