HOTPAW BASIC TUTORIALS - BY SIMON NATTRESS (2002)

Getting Started With YBasic
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YBasic really is quite easy to pick up.  Infact, it can be done in a matter of days.  And that's for full proficiency, not just the bare basics.  To get started you will need the following things:

-YBasic Interpreter - This is available from palmgear.com, under the title "Hotpaw Basic".  This allows you to run programs.

-pEdit32 - Not really needed, but it expands the memopad limit to 32k instead of the builtin 4k, very handy if you're writing even a small program.  Also available from palmgear.com.

-Switchhack, OR Silkhack.  Both of these hacks will allow you to switch to YBasic quickly to run and test your programs.  This is not compulsory, but it speeds up the development process.  Alternatively, you can simply map one of the hardware buttons to YBasic.

-YBasic manual.  This is crucial if you are not near a computer and need to look up a command.  Find the latest version at www.hotpaw.com/rhn/hotpaw/cbpb-readme.txt

-There is something innately unholy about the prospect of writing out a 32k program using Graffiti, which is why I use the Palm Keyboard, well, mine is actually a wireless one.  This is a real time saver.  I recommend getting one if you plan to write anything nearly as big as my resource editor.


Running Your First Program
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Your YBasic programs must begin in a specific way, so that the interpreter knows that they are a program, and not your shopping list:
First character must be a hash: "#"
Followed by the name of the program
Ending with ".bas"

IE:  #simon.bas

So try it.  On the second line, enter:
print "Hello World"

Take care that all commands are in all lower case.  Otherwise an error will be raised.

Load YBasic, select your program from the list, tap RUN.

And that's it!