DarkBASIC programming for the absolute beginner

427 Pages·2008·17.45 MB·English

by  Jr. Jerry Lee Ford

DarkBASIC
Programming
for the
Absolute Beginner
Jerry Lee Ford, Jr.
Course Technology PTR
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007923317
ISBN-13: 978-1-59863-385-6
ISBN-10: 1-59863-385-6
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 10 09 08
To my mother and father for always being there, and to my
wonderful children, Alexander, William, and Molly, and my
beautiful wife, Mary.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
here are a number of individuals who deserve credit for their work on
this book. I would like to thank Mitzi Koontz who served as the book’s
acquisitions editor. Special thanks also go to Jenny Davidson and Keith
Davenport for serving as the book’s project and technical editors. In addition, I
would like to thank everyone else at Course Technology for all their hard work.
A A
BOUT THE UTHOR
J
erry Lee Ford, Jr. is an author, educator, and an IT professional with
over 18 years’ experience in information technology, including roles
as an automation analyst, technical manager, technical support analyst,
automation engineer, and security analyst. He is the author of 24 other books and
co-author of two additional books. His published works include AppleScript Studio
Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Microsoft Windows PowerShell Programming for
the Absolute Beginner, Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition Programming for the
Absolute Beginner, VBScript Professional Projects, Microsoft Windows Shell Scripting and
WSH Administrator’s Guide, Microsoft Windows Shell Script Programming for the Absolute
Beginner, Learn JavaScript in a Weekend, and Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Administrator’s Guide. Jerry has a master’s degree in business administration from
Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, and has more than
five years’ experience as an adjunct instructor teaching networking courses in
information technology.
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Table of Contents
Part I Introducing DarkBASIC Professional................... 1
Chapter 1 Introducing DarkBASIC Professional................... 3
Project Preview: The Dark Jokes Game............................................................................. 4
A Quick Overview of DarkBASIC Professional................................................................ 8
DarkBASIC Versus DarkBASIC Professional..................................................................... 8
Setting Up DarkBASIC Professional................................................................................ 10
Installing DarkBASIC Professional.......................................................................... 10
Updating DarkBASIC Professional.......................................................................... 11
Installing DirectX 9.0c............................................................................................... 11
Activating DarkBASIC Professional........................................................................ 12
A Quick DarkBASIC Demonstration................................................................................ 15
Creating a New DarkBASIC Project......................................................................... 16
Configuring Project Settings.................................................................................... 18
Adding Program Code................................................................................................ 18
Saving and Compiling Your Application.............................................................. 19
Executing Your New Creation.................................................................................. 20
A Few Basic Scripting Commands................................................................................... 21
Commenting Your Program Code........................................................................... 22
Displaying Text on the Screen................................................................................. 23
Pausing Program Execution..................................................................................... 24
Terminating Program Execution............................................................................ 24
Other Game Building Tools Provided by the Game Creators................................... 25
DarkMATTER................................................................................................................. 25
SkyMATTER................................................................................................................... 26
SoundMATTER.............................................................................................................. 26
Other Game Creation Resources............................................................................. 26
Other DarkBASIC Resources.............................................................................................. 27
The Game Creator Forums........................................................................................ 27
DarkBASIC Tutorials................................................................................................... 28
DarkBASIC Professional’s Architecture.......................................................................... 29
The DarkBASIC Professional Scripting Language............................................... 29
The DarkBASIC Game Engine................................................................................... 29
viii DarkBASIC Programming for the Absolute Beginner
DirectX........................................................................................................................... 30
Putting All the Pieces Together............................................................................... 31
Back to the Dark Jokes Game................................................................................... 32
Designing the Game................................................................................................... 33
The Final Result........................................................................................................... 40
Running the Dark Jokes Application..................................................................... 42
Summary................................................................................................................................ 43
Chapter 2 Getting Comfortable with the DarkBASIC
Professional Integrated Development
Environment............................................................ 45
Project Preview: The Fortune Teller Game.................................................................... 46
Mastering the DarkBASIC Professional IDE.................................................................. 50
Major IDE Components.............................................................................................. 51
Creating New Projects........................................................................................................ 63
Alternate Integrated Development Environments..................................................... 64
CodeSurge...................................................................................................................... 65
Synergy IDE................................................................................................................... 67
BlueIDE........................................................................................................................... 69
Operational Differences Between the IDEs.......................................................... 72
Text, Color, and Graphics.................................................................................................. 72
Pixels and Text Placement........................................................................................ 73
Working with Text Commands............................................................................... 74
Executing Font Commands...................................................................................... 76
Working with Color Commands............................................................................. 78
Clearing the Screen..................................................................................................... 79
Erasing Text.................................................................................................................. 79
Executing Opaque and Transparency Commands............................................. 80
Back to the Fortune Teller Game..................................................................................... 82
Designing the Game................................................................................................... 82
The Final Result........................................................................................................... 90
Summary................................................................................................................................ 94
Part II Learning How to Write DarkBASIC
Applications............................................................. 95
Chapter 3 Working with Data Types, Variables, and
Arrays....................................................................... 97
Project Preview: The Number Guessing Game............................................................. 98
Storing and Manipulating Data..................................................................................... 102
Keeping Track of Your Program’s Data................................................................ 103
Contents ix
Working with Integers, Real Numbers, and Strings........................................ 103
Working with Variables................................................................................................... 106
Defining New Variables........................................................................................... 106
Assigning Data to Your Variables.......................................................................... 107
Controlling Access to Variables............................................................................. 107
Rules for Naming Variables.................................................................................... 109
Converting Between Numbers and Strings........................................................ 110
Doing a Little Arithmetic........................................................................................ 111
Manipulating String Contents............................................................................... 112
Storing Data That Never Changes................................................................................. 114
Embedding Data in Your Code File............................................................................... 115
Storing and Retrieving Collections of Data................................................................ 117
Defining an Array...................................................................................................... 118
Accessing Data Stored in an Array........................................................................ 118
Deleting an Array...................................................................................................... 119
Emptying an Array.................................................................................................... 120
Increasing the Size of an Array...................................................................................... 120
Inserting an Element into the Middle of an Array................................................... 122
Deleting an Array Element............................................................................................. 123
Creating User-Defined Data Types................................................................................ 124
Back to the Number Guessing Game............................................................................ 125
Designing the Game................................................................................................. 125
The Final Result......................................................................................................... 130
Summary.............................................................................................................................. 130
Chapter 4 Implementing Conditional Logic.......................... 131
Project Preview: The Rock, Paper, Scissors Game...................................................... 132
Developing Games That Can Adapt Their Execution............................................... 135
Working with the IF Statement............................................................................. 137
Working with the SELECT Statement.................................................................. 142
Working with Different Relational Operators........................................................... 144
Performing Numeric Comparisons...................................................................... 145
Comparing Text Strings........................................................................................... 145
Doing a Little Math........................................................................................................... 146
Working with Different Arithmetic Operators................................................. 147
Incrementing and Decrementing Values........................................................... 147
Understanding the Order of Operator Precedence.......................................... 148
Overriding the Order of Precedence.................................................................... 149
Streamlining Code Using Comparison Operations.................................................. 150
Back to the Rock, Paper, Scissors Game....................................................................... 152
Designing the Game................................................................................................. 152
The Final Result......................................................................................................... 157
Summary.............................................................................................................................. 157