Let me first say that I have absolutely no experience programming anything in any language. I do not have Basic installed on my computer. That being said, the following questions will probably be incredibly stupid. Feel free to laugh.
Anyhow, being a total begginer with programming, Iām wondering exactly what books and software I need to survive. Any suggestions?
Here come the stupid questionsā¦
I understand that the language that Iāll need to program with is called āBasicā. Does this mean that I will have to buy a CD with the Basic software on it? Or, will the software that Iāll get with the Bot Board and Basic Atom and the firmware that Iāll be able to download make buying software unecessary?
Do I actually need to buy both the Basic Atom and the Bot Board manuals? Does one make the other unecessary?
Would I be able to figure out how to program just from those two manuals, or will I need to buy a general Basic programming manual? What I mean is, do I need to know how to program with Basic before I can learn how to program the Bot Board + Basic Atom?
Everyone need to āstartā one day !
The Basic Atom IDE Software is free, you can download it at basicmicro.com/
the Basic Micro IDE manual is downloadable too in pdf format, but you can buy the āpaperā manual at lynxmotion.com/
in fact if you are a complete beginner with no equipment, you may start with the BASIC Atom 28 Pin Programming Starter Pack
lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx? ā¦ egoryID=84
you just need to add a serial cable or a serial to usb cable and you can add a SSC-32 card too.
the Bot Board manual is not a programming manual, because the Bot board can handle different Microcontrollers, but you need to read it in order to know how to plug all the stuff (easy).
the Basic micro IDE Manual is a good start for programming, but itās just a book to learn the Basic Micro commands syntax and capability, itās not really a book to learn āHow to program basicā.
Anyway Basic is easy to understand, but it need a bit learning.
first you will make ālinearā program, then you will add loop, and āif then else testā etcā¦
A program is not so hard to build, a good way to learn is to test the program examples (in the SSC-32 manual, in the Basic Micro manual or at the lynxmotion website).
reading a big programming book is annoying and you will feel alone, starting with nothingā¦and itās not practical.
the first thing to do is to plug all the stuff correctly and to try to read a bit the basic micro IDE manual (just to absorb) even if you donāt understand nothing at the first timeā¦
because it will make you familiar with syntax.
donāt read ALL the book, but try to understand what are variables, constants etcā¦ donāt read all the commands syntax
Then, you will be able to write your first little program (even one line ! just send a command to the SSC-32 Via the serout command for example)
many people here can help you to build your first program !
just ask, you will always find someone whoāll be able to solve a programming issueā¦
we can post here some program sample, increasing progressively the difficulty level.
Wow!
I was glad I found this discussion thread! Where Nick was back in November, I am now. All the same questions and twice the confusion!
This looks like a good place to start, thanks Laureatus for the information and advice!
I will certainly have a ton of questions for you once I get a little more familiar with the basics,(pun intended) hope you donāt mind.
Tinman
This is all well and good for programming the Bot Board. However, other microcontrollers and boards are programmed with other languages than Basic. Most commonly, āCā and āAssemblyā. All of these languages have several vairants. Even Basic. The exact nature of these variations are dependant on the systems in use. For example, the version of Basic used on the Bot Board is different from that used on a standard computer. And it is quite different from Microsoftās Visual Basic.
All of these different languages go by the same name of āBasicā. The reason for this is that they share several common features in the languages syntax (structure, wording, punctuation, etcā¦).
The result of all this is that by learning several different languages that share the same name, you can pick up on some of the more important concepts that apply to many languages.
To that end, if you want to learn more about Basic, I would suggest looking at Microsoftās Visual Basic Express, which is the free version of Visual Basic. It can be found at:
::looks up at what I wrote in Novemberā¦::
Wow, Iāve come a long way, hehe.
But, looking ahead, thereās sooooooooooooooooooo much left to learn!
T.T
Yikes, I feel dumb.
Somehow I purchased Visual Basic Express for 25 dollars.
.<"
Then again, I have a 56k modem, so it would have taken a couple days to download, anyway.