SpiderBasic

Click on Command or Keyword and Press F1

As munfraid said in another post, if you have example code open in the SpiderBasic IDE code editor, you can click on the command or keyword you want to know more about and press F1. The manual will pop up showing the help page for that command or keyword. You don't even have to highlight the command or keyword. Just click somewhere within the word.

So instead of just looking at example programs online, open a new blank file in the SpiderBasic editor, copy and paste the example code in there, then you'll be able to easily look up commands and keywords.



Help File Index Tab and Search Tab

As Paul said in a reply in this thread, you can open the help file, click on the Index tab, and type or paste in what you want to find. What you're looking for should pop up right away.

If you type or paste in something like "keyboard shortcut" under the Index tab, you probably won't find much that is useful. That's when it's time to click on the Search tab. Searching for "keyboard shortcut" under the Search tab will give you AddKeyboardShortcut() at the top of the list and that is very useful.




Below is the original post with the original title:

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Where is Case? Answer: Under Select : EndSelect

While looking at example programs, you might see "Case" and go to look it up in the index. You can't find it, then you do a Google site search of spiderbasic.com and can't find it that way. You search for "Case" in the PDF manual, but that word is used fifty billion times, so you look at the example code again and notice that "Case" is under "Select" so you search the index and that's not there either.

You finally check the Reference Manual page and find "Select" under "Basic Keywords."

Of course, after all that, you might see Case in another example program days later and forget all you went through to find it the first time and repeat the process like a mini version of forced reincarnation. Maybe this post will free you from the hellish hamster wheel.

Question: Where is Case in the online manual?

Answer: On the Select : EndSelect page.




// Moved to "General Discussion" (Peter)

i dont get your point
in BASIC it was always
SELECT -> Case

why someone to look somewhere else ?

plouf wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:21 pm i dont get your point
in BASIC it was always
SELECT -> Case

why someone to look somewhere else ?

In all BASIC or BASIC-like languages that I used in the 1980s and 1990s, there was no Select or Case. They didn't exist. Seems like many of the things in SpiderBasic didn't exist. Another example of something that didn't exist is Procedure.

The point is to help people who don't know what Case is to find it quickly.

In the early days BASIC was like Well, it's nice for a couple of lines, but I don't want to work like that any more...

munfraid wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:54 pm In the early days BASIC was like

Code: Select all

10: LET a$ = 137
20: PRINT "Guess the number"
30: INPUT b$
40: IF b$ = a$ THEN PRINT "You won!"
50: GOTO 30

Well, it's nice for a couple of lines, but I don't want to work like that any more...

I was happy when I was able to use labels instead of line numbers. I hated line numbers. I'm so glad batari Basic uses labels.

i cannot agree with you

SELECT case, exist AT LEAST since Qbasic (this is the older I know but may be older)
and exist in that form in all modern BASIC's and main competitors, (Visual BASIC etc)

so it is as it should be ...

plouf wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 6:21 pm i cannot agree with you

SELECT case, exist AT LEAST since Qbasic (this is the older I know but may be older)
and exist in that form in all modern BASIC's and main competitors, (Visual BASIC etc)

so it is as it should be ...

I made this thread for any people like me who never heard of Select or Case. If you've heard of them, the thread is not for you. Must all threads in the world be made just for you?

I used VIC-20 BASIC, A couple BASICs on the Commodore 64, AMOS Professional on the Amiga 500, bought Blitz BASIC in 2000 or 2001 (but never got around to using it), and the one I'm using now is called batari Basic for making Atari 2600 games. None of the BASIC Languages that I used over the years had Select or Case.

I never used Qbasic or Visual Basic. There are probably other people who also never used Qbasic or Visual Basic, but did use older BASIC or BASIC-like languages. This thread is for them.

I don't understand why you are arguing about it. Not everyone has used what you have used. Not everyone knows what you know. For example, if you're an expert squirrel juggler, that doesn't mean everybody else in the world is an expert squirrel juggler.

no not just for me, but your points are not very accurate

BlitzBasic has as also has procedures etc , dunno the rest.
Purebasic (and by definition SpiderBasic) are heavily inspired by Blitz
for us to be since the early days, have to know that original version of PureBasic was just a set of libraries for BlitzBasic (now this is prehistory for computer terms )

plouf wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:01 pm no not just for me, but your points are not very accurate

BlitzBasic has as also has procedures etc , dunno the rest.
Purebasic (and by definition SpiderBasic) are heavily inspired by Blitz
for us to be since the early days, have to know that original version of PureBasic was just a set of libraries for BlitzBasic (now this is prehistory for computer terms )

As I said, I bought BlitzBasic, but never got around to using it. I didn't use BlitzBasic. I didn't read the BlitzBasic manual. I didn't have lunch with the creator of BlitzBasic. I didn't go back in time and and babysit the creator of BlitzBasic when he was a child.

Every BASIC that I actually used didn't have procedures or Select or Case or anything like that.

I used things like if-then, goto, gosub, on-goto, on-gosub, horrible line numbers, and wonderful labels.

Random Terrain wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:46 pm While looking at example programs, you might see "Case" and go to look it up in the index. You can't find it, then you do a Google site search of spiderbasic.com and can't find it that way.

I typed "case" under index and it gave me easy to understand results in both the SpiderBasic help file and PureBasic help file.
It's super quick to just press F1 in the IDE to bring up the help file.