ARTICLE - Resources for the Beginner
by Brad Moore (brad.moore@weyerhaeuser.com)
copyright 2002 - all rights reserved

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The new Liberty Basic programmer often has a daunting task facing them as they try to acquire the skills to become proficient in the use of the language. In spite of its simplicity, becoming a Liberty Basic programmer is not necessarily an easy pursuit. This is a quick reference to help the new programmer locate the resources necessary to better acquaint hem with Liberty Basic.

Even though there are many different sources of information, nothing takes the place of the tough work of noodling ne's way through the language. It will take some time to get proficient - expect that. I offer the following ideas about what he best steps are for the first time programmer getting started on Liberty Basic.

1) Work your way through the tutorial that is included with Liberty Basic. It is the first place to start. It is designed in six major modules organized into weekly lessons. They walk the new programmer through the beginning stages of writing a program up through the final lesson where you produce a full featured application.

2) Next there is another very good tutorial which is part of Alyce's Mastering Liberty Basic ebook. If you can not afford to purchase the ebook Alyce makes her earlier version Using Liberty Basic 2 available for free. Both have a very excellent tutorial that the first time programmer should work through.

3) This is a good time to read through the Liberty Basic command reference. I know it seems boring, but the best way to get to know what all Liberty Basic can and can not do it to read each entry in the help file that describes the commands and functions.

4) The next and final step, and this is an important one, is to load and run each of the example programs. Play with them. Change some of the commands and see what happens. Challenge yourself to change an example program to do something specific and then see if you can do it.

By the time you have finished these steps you will have gained an excellent grasp of the language. You should be able to start a project of your own design, or leverage an example file and expand it into something else. To be sure this will take some time. Don't rush it. Treat it as an investment. The skills will take you a long way.

There are several places where general information that can be useful to the beginning (and advanced) Liberty Basic programmer can be found. I have compiled a brief list.


Newsletters 1 -79 (this is Alyce's archive of the early newsletters) http://iquizme.0catch.com/lb/lb2/nl.html

Using Liberty Basic 2 (Aimed at LB 2.x, this is a free online reference) http://iquizme.0catch.com/lb/using/index.html

Mastering Liberty Basic for LB3.02 (Recently updated, this is the premier Liberty Basic resource for new and established programmers - this is a shareware offering, but is well worth the minimal purchase cost)
http://iquizme.0catch.com/lb/lbw3/master.html

Liberty Basic FAQ (a small online Frequently Asked Questions list) http://iquizme.0catch.com/lb/faq.html

The Official Liberty Basic group (Yahoo group) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertybasic/
The new Group is at: http://libertybasic.conforums.com/ (4-7-2003)

LB Newsletters (Yahoo group) - all of the newsletters 1 - 100 can be found here. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lbnews/

SAMS Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours - (Greg Perry, the author of the best selling QBasic book ever "QBasic by Example" has chosen Liberty BASIC as the introductory programming language in his new book titled "SAMS Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours". This book includes Liberty BASIC v2.02 and goodies from Side by Side Software. Sams; ISBN: 0672323079; 2nd edition - January 15, 2002)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672323079/ref%3Dase%5Fmacmillanusacom/104-7991365-5733557

Beginning Programming for Dummies 2nd Edition - (Beginning Programming for Dummies 2nd Edition by popular author and columnist Wallace Wang. This book presents a general introduction using Liberty BASIC examples. The book includes a CDROM with the shareware version of Liberty BASIC 2 and other goodies, including materials created by Side by Side Software. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0764508350; 2nd Bk&cdr edition (April 2001) - I hear there is an update in the works for this one!)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764508350/qid%3D1023676813/sr%3D1-/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F1/104-991365-5733557

LB3 Helpfile online (this is an online version of the complete LB3 helpfile - you can even work your way through
the tutorials here!) http://www.libertybasicuniversity.com/lb3docs/index.html

Home

Paths and File Names
Observed online
Resources for the beginner
Graphics Drawing Rules
beginner's guide to API and DLL
Drawing IN MEMORY
Radiobuttons via API
NumbWord
Working with Comboboxes