More on getting started with Liberty BASIC

In addition to the resources I mentioned the other day, please do not overlook our great online community of users.

There are two large forums where you can learn a lot from friendly, knowledgeable people about all kinds of things.

First the forum at Conforms.  This great forum is organized by topic, which is really nice.  Here's the link:

   http://libertybasic.conforums.com

Secondly there is Yahoo Groups!  What's nice about this site is that you can subscribe to get emails, and you post to the group by email.  Here is the link:

    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertybasic

People do amazing things with Liberty BASIC, and these are the places where these people hang out.

See you there!

Tiny BASIC revisited

Liberty BASIC comes with an implementation of Tiny BASIC which is extremely similar to the BASIC that came with the old Radio Shack TRS-80.  Remember that computer?  Some of us do.  :-)

This is a very limited version of BASIC, but it has some strengths.

• Simplicity - Not much to learn
• Interpreted - This is an interactive interpreter
• Source code - You can modify the language

So, since Tiny BASIC can be modified by pretty much anyone who knows a little BASIC, I am starting a series where I will extend the language and show how to do it.

First we will focus on graphics!  More to come so stay tuned!

Doing pixel manipulation in Liberty BASIC

One of the members of the Liberty BASIC community posted a cool example of doing pixel graphics in Liberty BASIC.  It is instructive because it is short and it shows how to effectively use Windows API calls to work with graphical images.

Here is a link to the post including a code example and a screenshot of the output.

  http://libertybasic.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=LB3&action=display&num=1451162343

How to get started with Liberty BASIC

I got an email today from someone who was frustrated trying to figure out how to get started with Liberty BASIC.  This seemed like good blogging material.  :-)

Here is a start on the subject of getting started.

Try it - Download the trial software and install it.  It works on pretty much all versions of Windows that run on laptops and desktop PCs.  We don't support Windows Server but it may run.

  Here's the download link http://www.libertybasic.com/download.html

Liberty BASIC comes with a tutorial.  Once you start up Liberty BASIC look at the Help menu for the tutorial and the help documentation

There is a softcover book that you can purchase at Amazon's site.

  Here is the link for the book:
    http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Programming-Liberty-BASIC-Gundel/dp/0557228115

New features of Liberty BASIC v4.5.0

This exciting new release of Liberty BASIC increases memory available 14x over the previous version, adds new string functions, the ability to fetch web pages, and new code editor enhancements.  Download your copy now!  Click here.

New features of Liberty BASIC v4.5.0

• Memory space raised to 1GB from 70MB
• Ctrl+click on a branch label or SUB name to jump to that place in the code
• Double click on a variable name or handle to highlight other occurences of that item in yellow
• New httpget$() function so now you can get a file from a webserver without API calls
• New string functions make it easier to do some things and with faster performance.
  • upto$(sourceString$, search$
  • after$(sourceString$, search$
  • afterlast$(sourceString$, search$)
  • endswith(sourceString$, search$)
  • remchar$(sourceString$, removeThese$)
• Removed arbitrary limitations on the baud rates that can be specified when opening a serial port.
• Upgraded to NTPort v2.8 from v2.3 to add compatibility for 64-bit versions of Windows.
• The Liberty BASIC editor now remembers its size and location when you start LB.
• Added a filter bad characters feature in the LB editor help the compiler, especially when code is pasted in from a web browser.
• Increased the FILEDIALOG length of the file path from 128 to 260 which is the Windows file dialog maximum path length.
• Added FIND, FINDBACK, and RESETFIND commands to the text window and texteditor control.
• Added !backcolor and !forecolor commands to texteditor controls and text windows
• Several bug fixes