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about Sharp PC-1500
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III.
THE MYSTERIOUS (?)
ART OF PROGRAMMING
The
art of
programming
has
been
needlessly shrouded in a veil of
mystery for so long that most
people
as.sociate
it
with \Vizardry or mathematical
genius.
The
fact
is
that
no special
talent
for
pulling
rabbits
out of hats
is required. Nor is
it
necessary
that
you be adept at solving partial
differential equations. Your
greatest
assets will be your patience, your
logical reasoning
abil ities,
your attention to detail,
and your
eagerness to learn. A ,,villingness
to
accept challenges is also
useful {we won't kid you: at times programming is very challenging. that's the fun of it).
Programming is
an
art
1
and
as
such
require
s
a
little
skill, a
little training,
and a
~ot
of
practice.
It
is
not
ou
r
intent
in
this manual
to
make
a seasoned
programmer out
of you
.
\Ve will familiarize
you
with the
basic
operations and concepts of
programming.
To
be a
competent
programmer
requires
more,
just as good driving
involves
more than knowing
how to steer
and
shift gears.
Many good books on programming already exist and we strongly urge you to patronize you
local
computer dealer and
library.
Several good books on programming
in
genera
l
a
nd
the BASIC
language
in particular, arc listed
in
Appendix F.
A. What
Is
A Program?
You
may be surprised
to
discover
that
a program
is
just
a
set of instructions
that the computer
follows one at a time.
These
instructions must
be
given to the computer
in
a
language
it "under-
stands". The SHA.RP PC·1500A
"speaks"
a dialect of BASIC, a widely used and very popular
programming
language,
Like other
languages,
BASIC has a special
vocabulary and
grammar
rules
which arc combined to form statements.
If
you speak to SHARP
"u
ngrammatically".
or in
unfamiliar
voeabularv,
the
computer
will
alert
you
to your error. But
it
is
not difficult
to
correctly
instruct
SHARP. The
BASIC language was
originally
developed
to
teach programming
principles and
many of
its statements
contain
Englis'h
words and other familiar symbols.
B.
How Do I
Program?
As
you
use SHARP to program, you will follow a certain
routine. The instructions
which make.
up a program are entered
in
the
PROgram
mode. These instructions are known as
"statements"
in
the BASIC
language.
To begin execution
of
these statements,
it
is necessary to switch to the
RUN
mode,
and
then
to
instruct
SHARP to proceed by
typing
the RUN command. For you
"experts",
who already have the two programs of Chapter O under
your
belt,
this will be
familiar.
For
those
who
are
peeking ahead
,
let's
try entering and running a program:
Switch to the PROgram mode and
issue
the
BASIC "command" {more on commands vs.
statements
later):
This
will erase any previous statements
which
may be
left in memory. Type
the
foll.
o wing
line:
Program Listing:
10 PRIN
T
"GOOD SHOW!"
Keystroke$:
o:J[QJIIJ
CB:J
OJ(JD[D
l•HOFTI
C:::J
(Jj]
[QJ[QJ[J[)
lsPAC<I
m
m
rn
oo
1SH•"
1
m
rs;.."
1c::i1
,.,,.1
26
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