Preface

This document explains how to use the NewBASIC visual builder tool to create simple applications. It contains an overview of the Form Builder, the Editor and the Debugger as well as detailed information about the components that make up the language.

Who Should Read This Manual

This New Deal Application Development Manual is both an introductory manual for new NewBASIC programmers and a reference guide to experienced users of the tools in the New Deal operating system.

In This Manual

You can find the following information in this manual:

  1. Introduction: An overview of working with the program and the NewBASIC components.
  2. Getting Started with NewBASIC: A simple tutorial which covers laying out a window design, editing the properties of the buttons and windows, and adding some code to the program. By the end of this chapter, you will have created a simple program which you can test, run and edit.
  3. Concepts: Some definitions of technical terms and an overview of the following concepts:
  4. applications
  5. component trees
  6. focus and active windows
  7. text and mouse input
  8. time features
  9. using color
  10. The NewBASIC Language: A detailed description of how to use the NewBASIC language. Many of the components are introduced here along with a review of the syntax, and an introduction to the Editor window.
  11. Component Types: A description of the NewBASIC component types, their actions, events and properties.
  12. The NewBASIC IDE: an introduction to working with the New Deal Builder. This chapter explains how to put what you learned about the NewBASIC tools and the language together to create and test a program. It reviews the entire process from creating the initial program, to compiling and testing.

Manual Conventions

In this manual we use special formatting to help you identify parts of the code. Some conventions we include in this manual are the following:

Format

Description

Examples are contained in shaded boxes.

bold text

New terms and routine names are identified with bold text.

italic text

Italics are used both to emphasize important points and to identify variable and constant names.

courier font

Courier is used to show examples of code.

striked courier text

The strikethrough line is used to show examples of bad code. Do not try to use this code.

green text

If you are working with this manual in an electronic format, you'll notice heading names and page numbers sometimes appear in green.This indicates areas of text which act as hotspots, or hypertext links . You can click on the green words and jump to its reference in the file.

Identifies tips for working with New Deal.

Important Terms

There are several terms used in this manual which are important to understand as you read through some of the descriptions. These are some of the more important ones.

gadgetry :
A generic term referring to parts of a form. For instance a gadget could be a list of options shown by radio buttons, a text box in a form, or a checkbox.

handle :
To process a generated event. Event handlers are pre-defined BASIC routines that will execute when an event is generated. Handling is a passive process, whereas calling a routine is a proactive process.

invoke :
To call or run an action or routine. For example, Events invoke module routines.

UI :
The u ser i nterface. This term describes the components of a program's window. It is what you see when you interact with a program. This is sometimes called the screen design.