Electronics All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2

Programming in PBASIC

IN THIS CHAPTER

Learning the essentials of the PBASIC language

Working with variables and constants

Adding IF-THEN-ELSE logic to your programs

Looping with DO and FOR loops

This chapter is about the exciting but somewhat intimidating topic of computer programming. Specifically, programming the BASIC Stamp microprocessor using its built-in programming language, which is called PBASIC.

If you’ve never done any kind of computer programming, you’re in for an interesting and fun journey of discovery as you start to learn what makes computers work. This journey may seem rocky at times, as there are important concepts to be grasped and those concepts can be difficult to get your mind around at first. But trust me on this: Programming a BASIC Stamp microprocessor isn’t rocket science. You can and will get your mind around the difficult concepts, and when you do, your imagination is the only limit to what you can get a BASIC Stamp microprocessor to do.

So grab your thinking cap and get started.

Note that there’s a lot more to PBASIC programming than this ...