THE QL BEGINNER'S GUIDE
=======================

CHAPTER 1
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STARTING COMPUTING


THE SCREEN

Your QL should be connected to a monitor screen or TV set and switched on.
Press a few keys, say abc, and the screen should appear as shown below The
small flashing light is called the cursor.

+----------+----------+      +---------------------+
|          |          |      | +-----------------+ |
|          |          |      | |                 | |
|          |          |      | |                 | |
|          |          |      | |                 | |
|          |          |      | |                 | |
+----------+----------+      | +-----------------+ |
|abc                  |      |  abc                |
|                     |      |                     |
+---------------------+      +---------------------+
(Monitor)                    (Television)

If your screen does not look like this read the section entitled
Introduction. This should enable you to solve any difficulties


THE KEYBOARD

The QL is a versatile and powerful computer so there are features of the
keyboard which you do not need yet. For the present we will explain just
those items which you need for this and the next six chapters.


BREAK

This enables you to 'break' out of situations you do not like. For example:

    a line which you have decided to abandon
    something wrong which you do not understand
    a running program which has ceased to be of interest
    any other problem

Because BREAK is so powerful it has been made difficult to type
accidentally

    Hold down [CTRL] and then press [SPACE]

If nothing was added or removed from a program while it was halted with
BREAK then it can be restarted by typing:

    CONTINUE


RESET

This is not a key but a small push button on the right hand side of the QL.
It is placed here deliberately, out of the way, because its effects are
more dramatic than the break keys If you cannot achieve what you need with
the break keys then press the RESET Button. This is almost the same as
switching the computer off and on again. You get a clean re-start


SHIFT

There are two SHIFT keys because they are used frequently and need to be
available to either hand.

    Hold down one SHIFT key and type some letter keys. You will get
    upper case (capital) letters.

    Hold down one SHIFT key and type some other key not a letter You
    will get a symbol in an upper position on the key.

    Without a SHIFT key you get lower case (small) letters or a symbol
    in a lower position on a key.


CAPITALS LOCK

This key works like a switch Just press it once and only the letter keys
will be 'locked' into a particular mode - upper case or lower case.

    Type some letter keys
    Type the CAPS LOCK key once
    Type some letter keys.

You will see that the mode changes and remains until you type the CAPS LOCK
key again.


SPACE BAR

The long key at the bottom of the keyboard gives spaces. This is a very
important key in SuperBASIC as you will see in chapter two.


RUBBING OUT

The left cursor together with the CTRL key acts like a rubber. You must
hold down the CTRL key while you press the cursor key. Each time you then
press both together the previous character is deleted.


ENTER

The system needs to know when you have typed a complete message or
instruction. When you have typed something complete such as RUN you type
the ENTER key to enter it into the system for action.

Because this key is needed so often we have used a special symbol for it:

    [ENTER]

Where we use the [ENTER] symbol to represent a keystroke, we mean press the
key labelled ENTER, not type in the letters e n t e r.

We shall use this for convenience, better presentation, and to save space.
Test the [ENTER] key by typing

    PRINT "Correct" [ENTER]

If you made no mistakes the system will respond with

    Correct


OTHER KEYBOARD SYMBOLS OF IMMEDIATE USE

*    multiply                +    add

_    underscore              =    becomes equal to (used in LET)

"    quotes                  '    apostrophe

,    comma                   !    exclamation

;    semi colon              &    ampersand

:    colon                   .    decimal point or full stop

\    backslash               $    dollar

(    left bracket            }    right bracket


UPPER AND LOWER CASE

SuperBASIC recognises commands (keywords) whether they are in upper or
lower case. For example the SuperBASIC command to clear the screen is CLS
and can be typed in as

    CLS [ENTER]
    cls [ENTER]
    clS [ENTER]

These are all correct and have the same effect. Some keywords are displayed
partly. In upper case to show allowed abbreviations Where a keyword cannot
be abbreviated it is displayed completely in upper case.


USE OF QUOTES

The usual use of quotes is to define a word or sentence - a string of
characters. Try:

    PRINT "This works" [ENTER]

The computer will respond with:

    This works


The quotes are not printed but they indicate that some text is to be
printed and they define exactly what it is - everything between the opening
and closing quote marks. If you wish to use the quote symbol itself in a
string of characters then the apostrophe symbol can be used instead. For
example:

    PRINT 'The quote symbol is "'

will work and will print

    The quote symbol is "


COMMON TYPING ERRORS

The zero key is with the other numeric digits at the top of the keyboard,
and is slightly thinner.

The letter 'O' key is amongst the other letters. Be careful to use the
right symbol.

Similarly avoid confusion between one, amongst the digits, and the letter
'I' amongst the letters.

When using a SHIFT key hold it down while you type the other key so that
the SHIFT key makes contact before the other key and also remains in
contact until after the other key has lifted.

The same rule applies to the control CTRL and alternate ALT keys which are
used in conjunction with others but you do not need those at present.

Type the two simple instructions

    CLS [ENTER]
    PRINT 'Hello' [ENTER]

Strictly speaking these constitute a computer program, however it is the
"stored program" that is important in computing. The above instructions are
executed instantly as you type [ENTER]

Now type the program with line numbers:

    10 CLS [ENTER]
    20 PRINT 'HELLO' [ENTER]

This time nothing happens externally except that the program appears in the
upper part of the screen This means that it is accepted as correct grammar
or syntax. It conforms to the rules of SuperBASIC, but it has not yet been
executed, merely stored. To make it work, type:

    RUN [ENTER]

The distinction between direct commands for immediate action and a stored
sequence of instructions is discussed in the next chapter. For the present
you can experiment with the above ideas and two more:

    LIST [ENTER]

causes an internally stored program to be displayed (listed) on the screen
or elsewhere.

    NEW [ENTER]

causes an internally stored program to be deleted so that you can type in a
NEW one.


SELF TEST ON CHAPTER 1

You can score a maximum of 16 points from the following test. Check your
score with the answers in the ANSWERS pages at the end of this Beginner's
Guide.

1.  In what circumstances might you use the BREAK sequence?

2.  Where is the RESET button?

3.  What is the effect of the RESET button?

4.  Name two differences between a SHIFT key and the CAPS LOCK key.

5.  How can you delete a wrong character which you have just typed?

6.  What is the purpose of the ENTER key?

7.  What symbol do we use for the ENTER key?


What is the effect of the commands in questions 8 to 11

8.  CLS [ENTER]

9.  RUN [ENTER]

10. LIST [ENTER]

11. NEW [ENTER]

12. Do keywords have the proper effect if you type them in lower case?

13. What is the significance of the parts of keywords which the QL
    displays in upper case?
