In and Out
Run and Quit GWBasic
Running GWBasic under Windows is as simple as running any other Windows program.
Simply double click on the GWBasic icon and you are in. Close it out by clicking
on the wee little x in a box and your back out. You will have started and quit
GWBasic. You are ready to continue on to the remaining lessons, unless of course
you wish to read below and learn about a few of the more intricate ways of doing it.
This would be typical for most programmers who delight in figuring out how to get where
they are going by taking "the path of most resistance".
These are the steps to follow for the first lesson (the easy way)
step 1. Double click on GWBasic
step 2. click on the close button
******* your done ********
More about what you saw in step 1 and 2
Oh yes. I expected to see you down here. You probably would like to know a little about what
you saw when you were in GWBasic. It came up in the familiar Windows console with the usual
Windows features. There are also a number of control buttons that have their own functions,
like copy, paste, properties and so on. One thing that might be said about the "full screen"
button is that it shows GWBasic as it was seen in the old days before Windows boxed it in with
its own console window. In full screen, there is not way to get back to the console without
using a special set of key-strokes. The "Alternate-Enter" keys pressed simultaneously will
toggle between full screen and the console display. Alternate-Enter goes into full screen and
another Alternate-Enter will return to the console mode. The other functions are beyond the
scope of GWBasic, but are covered in other sections of this tutorial.
I should mention that the way GWBasic (or an other DOS program) comes up onto the screen can
be controlled with the properties button. Open properties with the button on the task bar and
click on the next to the last tab to select how the GWBasic windows should open. Either full
screen or console mode may be selected. Also the task bar can be hidden. If the task bar is
hidden then the way to return to the properties window to unhide the task bar is to right
click on the GWBasic.exe icon and select properties at the bottom of the drop down menu.
This information will be helpful if you play around with the appearance of the console and
have trouble getting things back the way they were.
The display for GWBasic begins with some information about the program name, level and version
number, copywrite dates and the number of free bytes. The number of free bytes is invalid now
because the hard drive has so much more memory that did the old floppy disks. These data will
go away after the first time the screen is cleared during any given session.
The program's prompt is the characters OK. This prompt is the location of the next character
that is to be typed. Any keyboard commands will immediately follow this prompt and the command
is executed when the ENTER (RETURN) key is depressed.
Notice the keys displayed at the botton of the screen can be hidden with the "key off" command
and restored with the "key on" command typed immediately after the prompt and followed with
a RETURN. I don't use the function keys myself, so I type in the words key off followed by
pressing the ENTER (RETURN) key and it goes away.
Another thing that should be mentioned is the warning window that may display when GWBasic is
is closed. It says to exit GWBasic with and Exit or Quit command. This doesn't apply to
us at this time because the Exit command is used only when GWBasic is entered from the DOS
prompt. This warning feature is annoying and may be turned off in the Properties window using
the MISC tag. A check or not determines whether or not this warning window will show on
termination of the GWBasic program. I prefer it off myself. The PROPERTIES window is the
Windows display that is shown on the screen when the PROTERTIES button is clicked when you are
in GWBasic. It can also be called by right clicking on the gwbasic.exe icon and selecting
PROPERTIES at the bottom of the drop down menu.
A word of warning if you play with the different fonts either from the task bar or with the
properties display: Write down what you are using because you might wish to restore the
display to where it was before you began experimenting. The displays can become rather
conveluted and require a lot of different combinations to find the display you like.