Chapter 1: Introduction to BASIC

Programming
Have you ever, when seeing a game or another program, asked yourself : How did they do that?
Every program, every game you run on your computer, has been written by someone using a
special software development tool called a programming language.
By definition: A program is a set of instructions that makes the computer work. The
instructions constitute of keywords, sometimes called reserved words, that have special functions
such as:
• Clearing the screen
• Writing data to the screen
• Getting user input
• Executing loops
• Changing colours
• Playing sounds
• Opening files
• Etc.
There are different programming languages. Some are difficult to use, understand, other are
limited to special purposes such as scientific calculations, drawing or database management.
Some programming languages out there:
Programming language Purpose Difficulty
C/C++ General Difficult
Pascal Educative Medium
Logo Drawing, for Children Very Easy
COBOL Business ??
FORTRAN Scientific ??
BASIC General Easy

The BASIC programming language

BASIC is a high level language that was developed in 1964 by John Kemeney and Thomas Kurtz
at the Dartmouth College in the USA.
It is one of the most popular programming language because it easy to learn and use. It was
meant to be as easy as possible.
BASIC is an acronym for:
Beginner's All - Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
Different Versions of BASIC
There are different versions of BASIC. Among them:
GW-BASIC, Turbo BASIC, Quick BASIC, Qbasic, Visual Basic, Liberty BASIC, Power
BASIC, etc.
Visual Basic is probably the most popular and powerful of all. It has many advanced features
which allow you to write great programs in a short time with a minimum of code and sometimes
no code at all from your part if you're to use the application wizard. However it would be,
IMHO, wiser and easier to start with a more standard version of BASIC like QBasic.Though
there are different versions of BASIC, most of the instructions are the same.
Programming in Qbasic
Qbasic was developed in 1987. It is a light version of Quick BASIC. It contains about 250
reserved words.
Where is Qbasic?

Qbasic comes with Ms-DOS 5.0. It is also available on your Windows 95/98
Cd-Rom.

How to load Qbasic?

The executable for Qbasic is Qbasic.exe. If Qbasic is in your path you can, from the DOS
prompt, type:
C:\>Qbasic ↵

If you have Windows installed and have Qbasic on you hard disk, the easiest would be to put a
shortcut on your desktop or in your start menu programs. Get the help of a computer guru if
necessary.

The Qbasic IDE

 The Qbasic IDE
The Qbasic IDE is quite simple to understand. It is divided into two windows: the Untitled
Window and the Immediate window.
You should type your instructions in the untitled window.
To run your program, click on Run -> Start or Press F5
To get out of Qbasic, click on File -> Exit.
We'll see more about the Qbasic IDE later.

Two BASIC reserved words

It is not necessary for you to know all the BASIC reserved words to get started. You could write
a lot of programs using about 10 keywords. To get started we'll be using only two of them:
CLS This statement is used to clear the screen.

PRINT The PRINT statement is used to display data on the screen.

Your First BASIC program

To begin we will write a simple program that will output a text on the screen.
Type the following in the untitled window:
PRINT "Hello!"
PRINT "This is my first BASIC program."

To run your program:

Click on Run → Start
or
Press the function key F5

The output on the screen will be as follows:

Hello!
This is my first program.

Press any key to continue

Once the execution of your program is completed, BASIC will display a "Press any key to
continue" message on the screen. So press any key to return to your programming environment.
If you run your program many times, you will notice that the same text will be displayed several
times on the screen as shown below:
Hello!
This is my first program.
Hello!
This is my first program.
Hello!
This is my first program.
Hello!
This is my first program.

Press any key to continue

To get your screen cleared each time you run you program, put the CLS statement at the
beginning of your program:
CLS
PRINT "Hello!"
PRINT "This is my first BASIC program."
Note the presence of inverted commas(" ") in the PRINT statement. Always put inverted commas
if you want to output sentences or characters. We will be discussing more about it in Chapter 3.
[ Previous Index Next ]

Mathematics symbols
Some mathematical operators and their BASIC equivalent:
Operation Mathematics BASIC equivalent

Plus + +

Minus - -

Multiply x *

Divide ÷ /

Exponential a2 a^2

Qbasic Tutorial: Chapter 2

Storing data in the computer memory

Data types: Constants and Variables
You may need to store data in the computer when writing your program.
Data is classified into 2 types:
• Numbers
• Character Strings
Example of numbers:
10 +5 0.32 -1.234

Examples of character strings:

"Hello! how are you?" "John Smith" "14 Royal Road" "$123"

Characters consist of letters, numbers, symbols and special characters.

To store data in the memory you will need to put them first in memory variables or constants.
A memory variable will store values that vary, change.
A memory constant will store values that remain constant (i.e. they don't change).

The Computer Memory

The memory of the human being contains millions of cells that store the different information
that you have acquired in your life. Similarly the computer memory could be represented as
storage cells. Each cell can be given a name or an address as follows:
Value 10 +5 0.32 -1.234

name of cell a b c d

Hello! How are

Value John Smith 14 Royal Road $123
you

name of cell a$ b$ c$ d$

How to use the memory in BASIC?

Remember! Data are store in memory variables or constants. In Qbasic variables
should respect the following rules:
• The length should not be greater than 40 characters
• They should start with a letter
• They should not contain spaces
• They do not support certain characters such as (
If you don't put a suffix, BASIC considers the variable as being of single-precision
type
The table below shows the different types of variables:
Data Types Suffix

Single-precision !

Integer %

Double-precision #

Long-integer &
String $
• The first 4 types are used to store numbers.
○ The Single-precision & double-precision types store
floating numbers.
○ The integer & long-integer types store integers (numbers
without decimal points).
• The String variables store characters, letters, texts, sentences.
Examples:
Code Remark

a% = 10 Assigns the value 10 to variable a%.

message$ = "Hello friend" Stores the text "Hello friend" in the

memory variable message$.

number1 = 10 Assigns 10 to variable number1.

number2 = 15 Assigns 15 to variable number2.
sum = number1 + number2 Assigns 25 to variable sum.
b% = 4.5 In this case BASIC will truncate the
decimal part of the number and store
only 4 in the memory. Note:- Though
this is a mistake, BASIC won't
generate an error message.

c! = 10.123 Single-precision variables are used to

store floating points.

c = 10.123 Same as above. When a variable has

no suffix, it is considered as being a
single-precision variable.

Declaring variables
BASIC has received many critics because of its ability of creating & declaring
variables on the fly. Qbasic allow you to declare variables.
The DIM statement is used to specify a data type for a variable. Variables declared
should not end with a suffix.
The syntax is as follows:
DIM variable AS type
Example:

DIM userrname AS STRING

DIM age AS INTEGER
username = "John Smith"
age = 23
The code above is equivalent to
username$ = "John Smith"
age% = 23
So what method of working with variables is better?
Personally, though you might encounter both ways in the tutorial, I prefer to use the
first one. It's a good habit to declare every variable you use.

BUGS caused by Misspelled variables

One of the most common bugs in BASIC programming is misspelled variable names.
I often encountered the following mistakes while teaching BASIC to beginners:

length = 10 The variable "length" is wrongly spelled in the 3rd line.

Breadth = 5 BASIC differentiates between "length" and "lenght". It
area = lenght * breadth will look for the value of variable "lenght" in the
PRINT area memory. Since it could not find it, BASIC will assign 0 to
the variable.
So when you print the contents of variable "area", you will get a
0 instead of 50.

Unfortunately, apart from checking whether your variable was correctly written, we
can't do much to prevent these types of mistakes. However if you are working in
VBDOS, use the OPTION EXPLICIT statement to force all variables to be
declared. The program will tell you that variable "lenght" has not been declared,
giving you the opportunity to correct your mistake.

The PRINT statement - Writing data to the screen

The print statement is used to write data on the screen.
You can write:
• Numbers
• Characters, Sentences, Texts
 • The contents of memory variables and constants
Note: Characters and sentences are written within inverted commas(" "). What is
written within inverted commas is displayed as is during run time.
The following examples illustrate the different ways to use the PRINT statement:
Code Screen Output Comment

PRINT "5" 5 Writing character 5 to the

screen.

PRINT 5 5 Writing number 5 to the screen.

PRINT 5 5 Note the space before the

PRINT "5" 5 number 5 in the first line. BASIC
always puts a space for +/-
signs when printing a number.

PRINT "5 + 7" 5+7 What is within inverted commas

is written as is.

PRINT 5 + 7 12 Writing the sum of 5 and 7 to

the screen

PRINT 6 * 7 42 The * sign is used for

multiplication.

PRINT 12 / 4 3 The / sign is used for division.

PRINT 8 - 3 5

a=3 3 a, b, c and d are memory

b=4 4 variables.
c=a+b 7 The value 3 is assigned to
d=a*b 12 memory variable a.
PRINT a The value 4 is assigned to
PRINT b memory variable b.
PRINT c In the 3rd line, the computer
PRINT d looks assigns the sum of
memory variables a and b to
 memory variable c.
In the 4th line the computer
looks assigns the product of
memory variables a and b to
memory variable d.
In line 5, the computer looks for
the value of memory
variable aand writes it to the
screen.

a=3 a Did you expect to get 3 on the

PRINT "a" screen? Don't forget that
whatever is within inverted
commas is written as is.
The correct code should be:
a=3
PRINT a

We will see more features of the PRINT statement later.

Qbasic Tutorial: Chapter 4

Solving Mathematical Problems (Part 1)

Solving simple mathematical problems is one of the easiest tasks that you could do in
BASIC. If you are more keen at writing a game or making graphics, you will have to
be patient.:) We'll deal about that later.
Before proceeding, you'll have to understand some Basic concepts:
What is a program?
A program is a set of instructions that makes the computer work.
In most programs you will have to write you will have to think as follows:
• What data do I need to give to the computer?
• What operations will the computer have to perform with the
data given?
• What results will the program display
There are three parts in every task that we accomplish
Proces
Input −−> −−> Output
s
Input: What is needed
Process: What you need to do, calculate with the input
Output: The result obtained when the process has been done
Before beginning to code your program, it is important to write algorithms or pseudo
codes in plain English that will outline what you want to do.
Algorithms
An algorithm is a set of precise instructions for solving a problem. Algorithms
can be represented in plain English or in form of flowcharts
Here's a simple algorithm for calculating the sum of 2 numbers
Get the first number
Get the second number
Calculate the sum
Display the sum
Let's illustrate this concept using some mathematical examples:
We'll be using colours to differentiate between the Input, Process and Output parts of
the algorithm and program code.
Example 1: Finding the sum of 2 numbers

Write a program that will display the sum of numbers 8 and 12

Algorithm Program Code

Get the first number number1 = 8

Get the second number number2 = 12
Calculate the sum sum = Number1 + Number2
Write down the result PRINT sum
Output on Screen
20

You will have noticed that this program is not very explicit. The following code
makes the presentation more understandable as follows
Enhanced Example 1: Finding the sum of 2 numbers

Program Code

CLS
number1 = 8
number2 = 12
sum = Number1 + Number2
PRINT "This program finds the sum of two numbers"
PRINT "The first number is:"
PRINT number1
PRINT "The second number is:"
PRINT number2
PRINT "The sum is:"
PRINT sum
Output on Screen
This program finds the sum of two numbers"
The first number is:
8
The second number is:
12
The sum is:
20

The use of semi-colons in the PRINT statement tells BASIC to keep the cursor on the
same line.
More Enhancement to Example 1: Finding the sum of 2 numbers

Program Code

CLS
number1 = 8
number2 = 12
sum = Number1 + Number2
PRINT "This program finds the sum of two numbers"
PRINT "The first number is:";
PRINT number1
PRINT "The second number is:";
PRINT number2
PRINT "The sum is:";
PRINT sum
Output on Screen
This program finds the sum of two numbers"
The first number is: 8
The second number is: 12
The sum is: 20
Solving Mathematical Problems (Part 2)
As we say: Practice makes perfect. Here are more examples:
Example 2

Write a program that will display the product of numbers 8 and 12

Algorithm Program Code

Get the first number number1 = 8

Get the second number number2 = 12
Calculate the sum sum = Number1 + Number2
Write down the result PRINT sum
Be careful about not naming variables after BASIC reserved words. In the example
below, you might be tempted to use the word "base" for to store the base of the
triangle. The word "BASE" cannot be used. It is a reserved word in BASIC
Example 3

Write a program that will calculate the area of a triangle of base = 10 and height = 5
Algorithm Program Code

Get the base 'The word BASE is reserved in BASIC

Get the height 'So we'll use variable tbase to store the base
Calculate the area tbase = 10
Write down the area height = 5
area = 1/2 * tbase * height
PRINT area
As it is the case in mathematics, operations in BASIC follows
the BODMAS (Bracket, Of, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction)
sequence. In the example below, BASIC will calculate the sum of the length and
breadth within brackets then multiply it by 2.
Example 4

Write a program that will calculate the perimeter of rectangle of Length = 20 and breadth = 8.
Algorithm Program Code

Get the length length = 20

Get the breadth breadth = 8
Calculate the area area = 2 * (length + breadth)
Write down the area PRINT area
There may be several ways to process a task in BASIC. Use the one that suits you
better.
Example 5 (method 1)

Write a program that will calculate the area of a circle of radius = 7.

Algorithm Program Code

Get radius radius = 7

Get pi pi = 22/7
Calculate the area area = pi * radius * radius
Write down the area PRINT area

Example 5 (method 2)

Write a program that will calculate the area of a circle of radius = 7.

Algorithm Program Code

Get radius radius = 7

Get pi pi = 22/7
Calculate the area area = pi * (radius ^ 2)
Write down the area PRINT area

Enhancing Program Presentation

It's important for you to enhance you program by:
• Documenting your program
• Using meaningful variables
• Saying what is the purpose of the program
Documenting your program
As you will notice later, programs may become huge, thus difficult to understand.
The REM statement allows you to put remarks in your program.
Any line starting with the REM statement is ignored at run-time.
You can replace the REM statement by a single-quote ( ' ) symbol.
The two lines below are similar:
REM Program written by H.B.
' Program written by H.B.
The single-quote form of REM can also be placed at the end of a line
PRINT "Welcome everybody" 'Welcome message
Using meaningful variables
The use single-letter variables may be easy to type especially if your typewriting
speed is slow. However they may cause your program to be difficult to understand in
the long-run. The use of meaningful variables makes your program easier to
understand and maintain.
Here is an illustration:
x = 2000
y = 10
z = x * (100 + y)/100
Could you guess the code above? Now see how it is easy when meaningful variables
are used:
OldSalary = 2000
PercentageIncrease = 10
NewSalary = OldSalary * (100 + PercentageIncrease )/100

Saying what is the purpose of the program

Many novice programmers or children learning how to program, often neglect to say
what is the purpose of their program.
Example of an undocumented program:
a = 20
b = 30
c=a*b
PRINT "The product is "; c
As we said above, use the REM statement to put remarks, use meaningful variables
and, at run-time, say what your program is doing.
REM This program calculates the product of 2 numbers: 20 and 30.
number1 = 20
number2 = 30
product = number1 * number2
PRINT "This program calculates the product of 2 numbers"
PRINT "The first number is"; number1
PRINT "The second number is"; number2
PRINT "The product is "; product

Getting user input at run-time

Two commands or functions that allow you to get user input at run-time are:
 • The INPUT statement
• The INKEY$ function
The INPUT statement
The INPUT statement reads data from the user and stores it to a memory variable. The
syntax is as follows:
INPUT [prompt] ; [variable]

or
INPUT [prompt] , [variable]

or
INPUT [variable]

Example:
Example 1: Asking the user for his nameFinding the sum of 2 numbers

Program Code

DIM yourname AS STRING

PRINT "Enter your name:";
INPUT yourname
PRINT "Hello"; yourname; ". Have a nice day!"
Output on Screen
Enter your name: Loulou
Hello Loulou. Have a nice day!

The lines:
PRINT "Enter your name:";
INPUT yourname
can also be written as:
INPUT "Enter your name:"; yourname
Personally I prefer to use the first option because it is easier to understand and
because it is the standard procedure in most programming languages.
Example 2: Asking the user for his score in English and Math and
calculating the sum
 Program Code

DIM english AS INTEGER

DIM math AS INTEGER
DIM sum AS INTEGER

PRINT "Enter your score in English:";

INPUT english
PRINT "Enter your score in Math:";
INPUT math
sum = english + math
PRINT "The sum is:"; sum
Output on Screen
Enter your score in English: 65
Enter your score in Math: 59
The sum is: 124

Getting user data at run-time (continued)

The INKEY$ function
The INKEY$ function reads a character from the keyboard. Its main advantage over
the INPUT statement is that it does not require the user to press the ENTER (↵ ) key.
It is thus more appropriate in games.
The program below displays a sentence repeatedly until the Escape (Esc) key is
pressed.
DO
PRINT "Press the escape (Esc) key to stop!"
LOOP UNTIL INKEY$ = CHR$(27)

Example 1: Choosing between two options

Program Code

PRINT "1. Play Hangman"

PRINT "2. Play Tetris"
PRINT "Enter your choice:"
DO
a$ = INKEY$
LOOP UNTIL a$ = "1" OR a$ = "2"
IF a$ = "1" THEN
PRINT "You have chosen to play Hangman."
END IF
IF a$ = "2" THEN
PRINT "You have chosen to play Tetris."
END IF
Output on Screen
In the program test below the user has pressed number "1"

1. Play Hangman
2. Play Tetris
Enter your choice:
You have chosen to play Hangman.

The INKEY$ function is more appropriate in menu options and in games such as
Hangman, Tetris and other games where continuous input has to be monitored. See
also: A simple drawing program.

Making Decisions
You may need to ask the user to choose between one or more options. The
IF - THEN - ELSE statement and the
SELECT CASE statement
are used to make decisions depending upon specified conditions.
The IF - THEN - ELSE statement
The syntax for the If then statement is as follows:
IF condition1 THEN
[ List of instructions to be executed if condition1 is met]
END IF

IF condition1 THEN
[ List of instructions to be executed if condition1 is met ]
ELSE
[ List of instructions to be executed if condition1 is not met ]
END IF

IF condition1 THEN
[ Do what if to do condition1 is met ]
ELSEIF condition2 THEN
[ Do what if to do condition1 is not met and condition2 is met]
ELSE
[ Do what if neither condition1 nor condition2 are met ]
END IF

Example: Telling whether you have passed the test

Write a program that will ask the user for his score in math and say whether he has passed the
test. The pass mark is 40.
Algorithm Program Code

Clear the screen CLS

Write message on screen
Get user score
Check whether the score is
greater than 40 and print "You
have passed the test"
Enter your score in maths: 45 ↵
You have passed the test.
PRINT "Enter your score in maths: ";
INPUT score
IF Score >= 40 THEN
PRINT "You have passed the test."
END IF
Test 1: Output on Screen

Test 2: Output on Screen

Enter your score in maths: 30 ↵

You will have noticed that in test 2 the program did not display any message because
the condition was not met. You can use the ELSE statement to give a message when a
condition is not met. Here's an illustration:
Program Code

CLS
PRINT "Enter your score in maths: ";
INPUT score
IF Score >= 40 THEN
PRINT "You have passed the test."
ELSE
 PRINT "You have failed the test."
END IF
Test 1: Output on Screen
Enter your score in maths: 45 ↵
You have passed the test.

Test 2: Output on Screen

Enter your score in maths: 30 ↵
You have failed the test.

Sometimes you may need to use nested IF - THEN - ELSE statement ie and IF-
THEN-ELSE statement inside another IF-THEN-ELSE statement.

Making Decisions (continued)

The SELECT CASE statement
The SELECT CASE statement is another way to make decisions in BASIC.
The syntax is as follows:
SELECT CASE testexpression
CASE expressionlist1
[statementblock-1]
CASE expressionlist2
[statementblock-2]]...
CASE ELSE
[statementblock-n]]
END SELECT
Example
The example below illustrates how to use the select case statement

Algorithm Program Code

Display the menu 'Designing menu

Get user choice PRINT "1. Play Tetris"
Select choice: PRINT "2. Play Hangman"
case choice = 1 PRINT "3. Exit"
Say "You have chosen to play Tetris" INPUT "Enter your choice"; choice
case choice = 2 SELECT CASE choice
Say "You have chosen to play Hangman"
CASE 1
case choice = 3
Say "Goodbye" PRINT "You have chosen to play Tetris"
case choice = 4 CASE 2
Say "Wrong choice" PRINT "You have chosen to play
End select Hangman"
CASE 3
PRINT "Goodbye"
END
CASE ELSE
PRINT "wrong choice"
END SELECT

Creating loops
A loop is used to repeat a block of statement a certain number of times until a
condition is met. There are 4 ways to execute loops in BASIC.
• The FOR NEXT statement
• The DO LOOP statement
• The WHILE WEND statement
• The GOTO statement
The most popular are the FOR NEXT and DO LOOP statements.
Where are they used? Here are some examples:
• In solving mathematic problems where you have to print a list
of numbers which are incremented steadily.
• In games where you have to monitor continuously for keyboard
input or mouse input

The FOR NEXT Statement

The FOR NEXT statement is used to repeat a block of instructions a specified
number of times. The syntax is as follows:
FOR counter = start TO end [STEP increment]
 [block of instructions]
NEXT

In the FOR NEXT statement a block of instructions is executed a number of times.

The value of the variable counter is incremented by 1 until it equals to the value
ofend.

The variable counter, by default, increases by 1. You can change the rate at which the
variable counter increments after each revolution by using the STEP parameter: See
example 2 for an illustration.
Examples:

Example 1:This program print integers from 1 to 10

Program Code Output

DIM counter AS INTEGER 1

FOR counter = 1 TO 10 2
PRINT counter 3
NEXT 4
5
6
7
8
9
10

In the example above the instruction in green: PRINT counter is executed 10 times.
After each loop the value of the variable counter is incremented by 1.

Example 2:This program print odd numbers from 1 to 10

Program Code Output

DIM counter AS INTEGER 1

FOR counter = 1 TO 10 STEP 2 3
PRINT counter 5
NEXT 7
9
The DO LOOP statement
The DO - LOOP statement executes a block of instructions while or until a condition
is true.
The syntax is:
DO
[List of instructions]
LOOP UNTIL condition is met

or

DO
[List of instructions]
LOOP WHILE condition is met

While a counter is automatically incremented in the FOR - NEXT statement, you will
have to increment the counter yourself with the DO - LOOP statement.
Below is a comparison of the two methods:

The two codes below are equivalent

FOR - NEXT DO - LOOP

'This program displays a sentence 5 'This program displays a sentence 5

times times
CLS CLS
DIM counter AS INTEGER DIM counter AS INTEGER
FOR counter = 1 to 5 counter = 0
PRINT "Hello! How are you" DO
NEXT PRINT "Hello! How are you"
counter = counter + 1
LOOP UNTIL counter = 5

Qbasic Tutorial for beginners and children (Under Construction)

The WHILE WEND statement

The WHILE WEND statement is another way to execute a loop. The DO LOOP statement,
however, provides a better way to execute loops.
Code Output
DIM x AS INTEGER 1
x=0 2
WHILE x < 5 3
x=x+1 4
PRINT x 5
WEND

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pages viewed since January 19 2002

The GOTO statement

The GOTO statement branches to a specific line number or to the first statement after
a specified label.
In the example below the GOTO statement braches to the instruction after the
"label1" label until the value of variable "x" is equal to 5.
Code Output
DIM x AS INTEGER 1
x=0 2
label1: 3
x=x+1 4
PRINT x 5
IF x < 5 THEN
GOTO label1
END IF
You should advoid using the GOTO statement wherever possible. Programmers who
used GW-BASIC, the predecessor of qbasic, used to put a lot of GOTO statements,
branching in every directions, in their programs, thus making it difficult to maintain. It
was called spaghetti codes. The above program is simpler to write if you use the DO
LOOP statement instead.
The same as above using the DO - LOOP
'This program displays a sentence 5 times
CLS
DIM x AS INTEGER
x=0
DO
PRINT x
x=x+1
LOOP UNTIL x = 5
However, in some cases, there are no alternatives. The GOTO statement is used in
conjunction with the ON ERROR statement which is used to trap errors in your
program.
Chapter 9

Using colours
The COLOR statement is used to set the screen display colours.
It can be used in the following ways:
To modify both the foreground and the background colour use:
COLOR [foreground colour] , [background colour]

To modify the foreground colour only, use:

COLOR [foreground colour]

To modify both the background colour only, use:

COLOR , [background colour]

The foreground colour and the background colour are represented by numbers
The table below Below list the colours and their corresponding numbers.
Number Colour Number Colour

0 Black 8 Grey

1 Blue 9 Light Blue

2 Green 10 Light Green

3 Cyan 11 Light Cyan

4 Red 12 Light Red

5 Magenta 13 Purple

6 Brown 14 Yellow

7 White 15 Light White

The following examples illustrate how to use the COLOR statement:

 Example 1: Printing in red over blue

Program Code

COLOR 14, 1
PRINT "This text is in Yellow over Blue"
Output on Screen
This text is in Red over Blue

If you want to get the whole background in blue use the CLS statement after setting
the colours:
Example 2

Program Code

COLOR 4, 1
CLS
PRINT "This text is in Yellow over Blue"
Output on Screen
This text is in Red over Blue

You should be careful about the use of colours. Some colour matching are not
pleasant to the eyes.

The LOCATE statement

The LOCATE statement is used to move the cursor on the screen.
The syntax is:
LOCATE row, column

Example:
LOCATE 20, 30
PRINT "20th row, 30th Column"
By default there are 25 rows and 80 columns in BASIC, but this can be modified
depending upon the screen resolution you are working.
The example above displays the text "20th row, 30th column" at the 20th row and
30th column of the basic screen.

Using the locate statement in BASIC may result into "weird behaviour" from your
program.

Try the following example

CLS
LOCATE 1, 20
PRINT "Can you see me?"
LOCATE 25, 20
PRINT "Where are you?"
SLEEP

In the example above the sentence "Can you see me?" disappeared from the screen. So
what happened?
The problem lies with with the 4th and 5th lines of your code. When you use the
PRINT statement without putting a semicolon or a comma sign at the end of the line,
BASIC sends a line feed bringing the cursor to the next line. Since we were at the
25th row, the screen scrolls one line down and your original first line gets "on top of
the screen".
To solve this problem put a semicolon at the end of the PRINT statement.
CLS
LOCATE 1, 20
PRINT "Can you see me?"
LOCATE 25, 20
PRINT "Where are you?";
SLEEP

Using Procedures
As you continue progressing in programming, your program may become bigger and
more complex to understand. The use of procedures will help you to simplify the
code.
A procedure is a
To create a procedure:
Click on Edit −> New Procedure
To view a procedure:
Click on View -> SUBs
or
Press F2
and choose you procedure from the list