How to use the material

Some of what I am about to say will be repeated in the different books – but that is not a bad idea!!

BBC Basic starts off with basic building bricks.  It is essential to have a good grasp of these fundamentals because they are the small building blocks from which large programs are built.

The general idea behind programming is to “think small” – just see little bits of the problem – and that means using the small building blocks.

Some people would disagree and say you should plan the whole thing first. 
As far as I am concerned that is all very well once you have mastered the small steps. 
The old story of walk before you run.
Apart from which the small steps are a good way to build confidence.

DON’T just look at the answers!  Spend (if necessary) a LOT of time trying to solve things. 

Only after a lot of thought (even failed thought) does the answer really sink in and be meaningful.

I have had problems that have taken me DAYS to sort out.  
But that is normal in any thinking environment.  It happens to us all.

Some of the programs in BBC Basic will have tlap followed by a page number next to them.

This means Think Like A Programmer page X, and here you will find things broken down in the way a programmer would tackle it.

BBC Basic should be used and “Think Like A Programmer” should only be used when BBC Basic suggests it by having a link such as tlap p34 after the program name.

To aid navigation in the books.

Answers are hyperlinked (blue underlined text). 
Pressing Ctrl and clicking the mouse on the hyperlink will take you directly to the explained answer.
Ctrl + Click on the answer will take you directly back to the question in the first half of the book.

Do NOT disable macros or the above will not work.

There is no suggestion that my answers are the best way to do things. 
I supply answers merely to demonstrate a technique. – and we can all learn by seeing how other people tackle a problem.