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.