
                     Introduction to programming

             Written by : SlAk for the June 1996 koma release.
             Written in : Toronto, Canada.

 Many people have no clue about programming, in this text file you will
 hopefully learn the basics and  also learn a bit of turing [ an intermediate
 programming language ] We will zip through several key aspects of turing
 programming to help you understand programming a little better. But first
 something that may explain a few things.. you dont NEED to know the binary
 one.. but its good to under stand it.

     Q>   What is a source code?
     A>  A source code is the actual program itself when you view an .exe
         or a com file you are not seeing the source code, you are seeing
         it AFTER it has been compiled [ changed from the programming
         language to a language that your computer will understand.]

     Q>   Why are programmers soo snitchy with their source codes?
     A>  If you get the source code for say windows 95 you can change
         ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING in it.. then you can sell
         if for half the price they sell it for. Its similar to the
         way car companies guard the blueprints and plans to their
         cars, and food companies guard their recipies. They dont want
         you to get your grubbly little paws on them.

     Q>   Explain binary.
     A>  Binary is also called machine code. It is a series of ones and
         zeros that [ 1 = on, 0 = off ] it is a base 2 number system.
         Hexidecimal is a base 16 number system. This is pretty complicated
         and difficult to explain. Lets say i wanted to convert a regular
         number into binary any number hmm... lets say 56 ( decimal ) you
         have to do this,
                                                           32
                128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |       16
                ------------------------------------        8 +
                  0 | 0  | 1  | 1  | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |      ---
                                                           56
         binary   = 00111000

         hopefully that has thrown a bit of light on it. =)


               TURING Starting Out, Simple commands
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

       ( you really have to follow this, cause i didnt format it too well)
        Batch files are a very basic form of programming. Real programming
        gives you much more power and many more options. DO NOT USE CAPItALS
        for commands [ you can for variables ] because if you do they wont
        work.

       nothing will display unless you tell it to, you can by doing this,
       [ to run your program press F1 ]

put "look i am programming"

      Run your progam and this will be the output you'll see,

look i am programming

        The put command displays everything in the quotes.

        Variables: to declare a variable [ text ] you would type,

var whatever : string

       The 'whatever' can be anything you want you can also use capitals
       In your variable. To declare a variable that is a number [ integer ]
       You,

var whatever : int

      For a real number its,

var whatever : real

     If you want to ask the user a question you use variables and a new
     command 'get' so,
%*******************************************************************************
%the nAme And Age progrAm
var Name : string
var Age : real

put "Enter your name :"..
get Name
put "Enter your age :"..
get Age

put "Your name is ", Name, "and you are ", Age, " years old."

     from the blank line above to the line of stars is your source code.
     the two dots after the questions are called elipsis [ .. ] that tells
     the 'get' command to get from the same line, try removing them to
     see what happens. What the %blah blah means,

     Lets say you want to make a note on your program all you have to do
     is put a % sign before you type and it will not display the error
     message and will also not display it on the output.

     You can do math look,

var a, b, c, total : int
g := 5

put "enter a number:"..
get a
put "enter another one:"..
get b
% the first two will be added and then multiplied by g
c = a + b
total = c * g
put " the total is ", total, "

        see pretty easy, what i did with the g := 5 is, i told the program
        that g would equal five if i changed it to 6 it would multiply
        the total of 'a' and 'b' by 6 instead of 5. its Declaring the
        variable instead of asking the user to.

        loops:
        lets say you want your program to continue forever or a selected
        number or times, you need to make a loop, here is an example,

loop
put "hello"
end loop

        that will output 'hello' over and over again when you run it.
        here is a loop that will loop only 5 times it is called a
        counted loop,

%the "averages" program
%reads marks and computes average
var mark : int
var sum :int :=0
put "Enter marks: "..
for count : 1 .. 5
put count
get mark
sum := sum + mark
end for

        thats more complicated than the others we have used, but
        you should be able to figure it out.

        Sound and Colour :
        this is pretty easy to do but makes your program a lot
        more fun than boring old grey and silence.. too bad you
        can only use beeps though =(

colour(4)
put " dark red "
colourback (2)
put " wow the background is green! "

        there is basically how you do colour. now for music,
        you can play notes or pitches [ htz i think ] heres how.

play ("D")
play ("F+)

        that plays the note D and an F sharp. Theese notes are played as
        quarter notes. The duration of a note is given by a single number
        according to this table,

        1 whole note
        2 half note
        4 quarter note
        8 eighth note
        6 sixteenth note

        so this plays C as an eigth note,

play (8C")

       the other way i believe goes something like this

music (200, 200)

        the 200, 200 can be anything each a different pitch.


        I will also include a few source codes with this turing program
        and compiler, I have not covered file editing or pixel graphics
        or a number of other things, so dont think you know all there
        is to know..about turing =) To compile your program type,

        tcomp programename.t programeameoutput.exe

        You'll now have an exe.. to change asciis to exe you have to put the

put "  ,d$$$b, "

        for everysingle line. And then compile it =( hope fully you have
        figured out the cut and paste command..hehheh..

        Turing programs save with a .T extension here is a list of
        what of what other programming languages save their sources
        as so you can keep an eye out for them,

        Pascal / turbo pascal :  *.PAS
        Borland C / C++       :  *.C
        Basic / Qbasic        :  *.BAS
        Assembly              :  *.ASS ?

        These are totally different languages and though the programming
        structures are similar, the commands [ syntax ] is totally different
        they are also far more powerful than turing. Most things are made
        in Pascal or C++ . The old stuff like DBASE, COBOL, FORTRAN and
        even BASIC is totally outdated.

To get a turing book that teaches you EVERYTHING about turing write to,

                      Holt Software Associates Inc
                     203 Collage Street., Suite 305,
                             Toronto, Canada
                                 M5T 1P9

and ask for a book called  " TURING : a better approach to computer
programming." this book will help you more than i could. But i would
reccommend that if you want to be a programmer don't further your studies
in turing but learn about C ++ or Pascal.


        I hope you have enjoyed this text file, if there are any questions,
        comments, additions, flames or tips do not hesitate to call any
        koma board on the member list. Or you can reach me a lot quicker
        on my board,
                acidic tear (905)201-0739

           To all those lame groups who cannot stop trying to be 'hackerz'
          write your own texts and PLEASE make them original. IF they are
          not, then what good are you doing anybody? Even if no one ever
          finds out and people all think you are 33l1t3 you still wont
          be, you will stay a LAME for ever.

slak - koma june 1996 - toronto canada
SAUCE00introduction to programming        SlAk                koma                            P                              