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Basic of basics by Jamie Lawrence

What is Qbasic

Before even considering programming at this stage, it is essential to get some facts straight.  
Qbasic is a programming language (Surprise there I bet) created by microsoft in 1975, since then
new versions have come out such as 4.5 and 7.1 extended version which i myself use, and fortunatly
for our generation we have computers that can run it still, and most importantly - its free!!
If you do not have a copy of Qbasic, or only have V1.0 or V1.1, I suggest using 
a search engine such as Google.com and finding a version to download and use.
The reason for needing to upgrade above V1.1 is because V1.0 and V1.1 do not 
contain inbuilt compilers.  A compiler is a program that turns your Qbasic 
project into an exe file so that it can be run by the click of a button and 
meaning that you do not have to open Qbasic and go to run as you would when 
creating the program.  Also once compiled that means that nobody can see your 
code including you so be careful when doing this, always have a copy, believe me 
I know!
One last thing needed to know before we get stuck in is that Qbasic isn't fundamental communication 
with the computer as some people believe, it may be about as nitty gritty as you can get, 
but it's still never the less a program designed to create programs.  To create the most basic language 
possible which Microsoft did, you need to work with the workings of the computer.
So basically, the designer told the computer when creating basic that when 0011001 (Binary code (Resistors on or off)) 
is engaged at the same time as 1001010 then print on the screen.  That sort of thing, VERY COMPLICATED!!  
But we have enough to worry about, so try not to think too much about how Qbasic came to be. 


So assuming you have Qbasic 4.5 or 7.0 or 7.1, we can start.
Open the program, hopefully you know how to do that, and go onto my second tutorial.

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