Writing Your First Computer Program (CliffsNotes)

CliffsNotes™ Writing Your First Computer Program......Page 1
About the Author......Page 4
Table of Contents......Page 5
How to Use This Book......Page 9
Don’t Miss Our Web Site......Page 10
Why Use Languages?......Page 11
Guiding the computer......Page 12
Language levels......Page 13
Language versions......Page 14
Availability......Page 15
External mandates......Page 16
Understanding Syntax......Page 17
Elementary syntax......Page 18
Differences between computer languages......Page 19
How computer hardware affects\ryour program......Page 20
How operating systems affect\ryour program......Page 22
On-screen appearance......Page 23
Choosing Your Programming Style......Page 25
Structured programming......Page 26
Modular programming......Page 27
Object-oriented programming......Page 29
Programming with Interpreters, Compilers, and Linkers......Page 31
Compiling and linking programs......Page 32
Using a non-integrated environment......Page 33
Choosing an environment......Page 34
Debugging Programs......Page 35
Taking precautions to avoid bugs......Page 36
Getting rid of bugs......Page 37
Optimizing for size......Page 39
Optimizing for hardware......Page 40
Tools for optimizing......Page 41
Understanding the Variations of BASIC......Page 42
Installing QBasic......Page 43
Starting QBasic......Page 47
Understanding the QBasic Interface......Page 49
The QBasic menus......Page 50
The status line......Page 51
Setting Environment Options......Page 52
Exiting QBasic......Page 53
Typing Your Program in QBasic......Page 54
Running Your Program......Page 57
Editing Your Program......Page 59
A second look at the print statement......Page 60
Dealing with errors......Page 61
Performing lots of changes......Page 63
Saving Your Work on Disk......Page 65
Using Data Types......Page 67
Declaring variables......Page 69
Assigning values to variables......Page 71
Using variable arrays......Page 72
Understanding Operators......Page 74
Math operators......Page 75
Comparison operators......Page 77
Logical operators......Page 78
String Functions......Page 80
Changing the case of a string......Page 81
Converting a number to a string......Page 82
Finding the length of a string......Page 83
Extracting parts of a string......Page 84
Math Functions......Page 85
Generating random numbers......Page 86
Finding an absolute......Page 87
Determining the date......Page 88
Determining the time......Page 89
Making noise......Page 90
What are Procedures?......Page 91
The need for procedures......Page 92
What should be in a procedure?......Page 93
Creating Subroutines......Page 94
Using your subroutine......Page 96
Using subroutine arguments......Page 97
Creating Functions......Page 99
Procedures and Variables......Page 101
Using a For . . . Next Loop......Page 105
Exiting a For . . . Next loop......Page 107
Using a While . . . Wend Structure......Page 108
QBasic’s Do Loop Structures......Page 109
Using an If . . . Then Structure......Page 111
Using the Select Case Structure......Page 115
Q&A......Page 117
Visual Test......Page 118
Practice Projects......Page 119
Books......Page 121
Internet......Page 122
Magazines & Other Media......Page 123
Send Us Your Favorite Tips......Page 124
INDEX......Page 126