Liberty BASIC introduction and installation notes.
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Thank you for trying Liberty BASIC!  Liberty BASIC is marketed as
as shareware.  If you find this program useful, please register it.
When you do you will receive the runtime engine, which will allow you
distribute your programs without paying any royalties, and you will also
receive the most recent version of this program.  See the file
REGISTER.TXT.

This help system is based on the printed documentation.  You cannot actually
type information into these help windows, but you can copy code out by
highlighting it using the mouse, and then pulling down the Edit menu and
selecting Copy.  This is useful when you want to try out a code example in
these files without typing it all in.

Additionally, you can print any of these help files by pulling down the
Functions menu and selecting print.  If you highlight the area you want to
print using the mouse, then only that selected text will print.  Otherwise
you will be asked if the entire text should be printed.

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System Requirements:


Liberty BASIC is software for IBM AT compatible computers and
requires the following hardware and software:

  One 286, 386, or 486 computer with at least 3 megabytes of RAM and
  a hard drive with at least 2.5 megabytes of free space.  On machines
  that only have 286 processors, 4 or more megabytes RAM is the
  preferred configuration.  Microsoft Windows version 3.0 or version
  3.1 (running in standard or enhanced mode), and a mouse.

- or -

  One 386 or 486 computer running OS/2 2.0 and at least 6 megabytes
  of RAM, and with at least 2.5 megabytes (more strongly recommended)
  of free hard disk space.  Win/OS2 must be installed, and you must have
  a mouse.
 

INSTALLATION:

  To install Liberty BASIC, first make sure that you are not
  running Windows.  The program INSTALL.EXE is included with
  Liberty BASIC to install it for you.  
  
  Run this program, and you will be asked where Windows resides.  
  The default is C:\WINDOWS.  If Windows resides anywhere else, 
  you must specify it here.

  Now you will be asked where to install Liberty BASIC.  The
  default is C:\LIBERTY.  If you want it to be installed elsewhere,
  then you must specify it here.

  You will then be given an opportunity to abort the installation.
  If you choose not to abort, then installation will begin then.

  Once installation is complete, you may load Windows.  If you
  specified any directory to install Liberty BASIC into other than
  \LIBERTY, then you will need to alter the properties for the
  Liberty BASIC icon to indicate where it is installed.  Otherwise
  you can just go ahead and double-click on its icon to start
  Liberty BASIC.

  Liberty BASIC starts with a file browser window.  It is arranged as
  four panes, three across the top, and one on the bottom like so:

  +--------------------------------------------------------------+
  | -                  Liberty BASIC  c:\liberty             v ^ |
  +--------------------------------------------------------------+
  | a             [1]  | [..]          [2]  | demo.bas      [3]  |
  | b                  | liberty            | read.bas           |
  | c                  | msdos              | test.bas           |
  |                    |                    |                    |
  | select drive here  | select directory   | select file here   |
  |                    | here               |                    |
  +--------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                                                         [4]  |
  |                                                              |
  |                                                              |
  |                                                              |
  |         see BASIC source code here                           |
  |                                                              |
  |                                                              |
  |                                                              |
  |                                                              |
  +--------------------------------------------------------------+

 Select the drive to browse in pane [1], then select the directory
 (usually liberty) to browse in pane [2], then finally the file to 
 browse in pane [3].  When the .BAS file is selected, its source will 
 be displayed in pane [4].  To run the program, position the cursor
 inside of pane [3] and press the right hand mouse button and a menu
 will appear.  Then select the item BASIC source editor, and a new
 window will open which will contain a copy of the source for the
 selected file.  Then position the cursor inside of that pane and again 
 press the right hand mouse button for another menu.  There are two 
 options available, Run and Debug.  Run compiles and runs the program, 
 and Debug provides the additional benefit of a 3 level source level
 debugger with optional watch window.

 If you want help, you can get this on-line by pulling down the Help
 menu.   If you select a word in the source editor and then select help,
 the system will try to find that word or command in the text.  When
 the help window opens, pressing CTRL-F will also bring up a find
 dialog box.

Your First Liberty BASIC Program:

Let's illustrate how to develop programs with Liberty BASIC.  This next
program is often the first example given when teaching any programming
language.

First use your mouse to select the hard drive onto which you installed
Liberty BASIC (probably drive C:).  Next select the appropriate directory
(probably \liberty) and a list of BASIC program files will appear as below.



{Illustration was here}



Now pull down the Files menu and select Create.  You will be asked for a
filename for your new program.  Type hello, and then press the Enter key
or click on OK.



{Illustration was here}



You will now be asked to confirm creation of your new program file.  Click
on Yes or press the Enter key.  If you type it wrong, then click on No.



{Illustration was here}



Now press the Enter key a couple of times and press the Tab key.  Then type:

  print "hello world!"

Now use the mouse to point at the text you just typed and press the button
on the right side of the mouse, and a menu will appear.  Your should see:



{Illustration was here}



Now you can point at the Run item and press the left-hand mouse button to
run your program, or your can just press the 'R' key to accomplish the same
thing.

You will see a window open and then at once another smaller window will open
with a notice saying: Execution of hello.bas complete.  This second window
blocks your view of the first, which contains the result of your program.
Click on the OK button to remove the notice, and you'll be able to see it
better.

Here is what your finished program should look like.



{Illustration was here}



Now close the window labeled:  Program named - 'hello.bas'.

Let's save hello.bas so that we can refer back to it later.  Pull down the
File menu and select the Save option.  Your first program is now saved to
disk.



{Illustration was here}



Running other Programs:

Let's try running one of the sample programs that comes with Liberty BASIC.
Select the file named buttons1.bas and run it as shown below:



{Illustration was here}



A window will appear with some buttons:

  Three color buttons:  Red, Blue, and Green
  Two shape buttons: Triangle and Square
  One other button: Size

This program will display two different kinds of spirals, a triangular kind,
and a square kind.  Three different color options are available: red, blue,
and green.  Additionally, the program will let you decide how large to draw
the spiral.

Play around a bit with it.  Experiment.


{Illustration was here}



When you're all done, close the window.  Buttons1.bas will stop and ask for
confirmation before it closes the window.