Wondering what book I should read first?

[firepod]

I have plenty of choices, but I need to really start from the ground up with this. Right now I am looking at the "Beginner's Basic" and "User's Reference Guide" Are either of those a choice you would recommend I start with or is there another book I should start with first? I have read the "Basic Quick Reference", and a few other short reference type pages and of course online Ti Wiki stuff.

 

I don't have all the Commands, Functions or Statements memorized But I do feel I can go and reference those when Needed.

 

 

[+Vorticon]

If you have no programming experience in BASIC, then Beginner's Basic is where you should start. It is a really well written tutorial that will act as a springboard for more advanced topics. It is the first book I read when I bought my TI in 1981. The User's reference guide is also good, but it is a reference as its name suggests, not a tutorial. If you plan on using Extended Basic, then I would skip it and go for the Extended Basic manual which contains all you need to know.

From there, there is a huge library here http://harmlesslion.com/tibooks/ for your edification and your reading pleasure

[firepod]

Thank you!!!! I do intent to use either Extended and I would think Super Extended, but not fully sure, when I had my Ti back in the mid 80's early 90's I only had Ti Basic, could not afford the upgrades so all the Extended and Super is new to me. I made a few programs that were pretty simple, but all that knowledge which was not much has been lost. I have these extended basic books.

 

Computes Guide To Extended Basic Home applications in Ti994a, ExtendedBasics3, Super Extended Basic Manual, Ti Extended Basic - link, Ti Extended Basic Manual.

 

Not sure if these are the ones that are the "must read" or if there is another book I should start with that will get me going from beginning to intermediate ect. After that I should have a good idea of which books or book to move on to next.

[+Ksarul]

Note, the Extended BASIC 3 manual you have is for the Winfried Winkler Extended BASIC 3 module--it is available as a set of ÜberGROM files in the 632K cartridge thread--and it needs the same type of setup you did for XB 2.7 and RXB in Classic99.

 

I'd start with the books already mentioned, but add the "Creating Arcade Games on the TI-99/4A" and also the "TI-99/4A Sound and Graphics" books. They make a nice tutorial for BASIC and Extended BASIC programming. The site Vorticon linked to has well over 90% of the English language books written for the TI, so it is an excellent reference site.

[+Lee Stewart]

There's also Forth (much faster than all of the Basic languages for the TI-99/4A):

 

• fbForth: fbForth—TI Forth with File-based Block I/O—now, with a FONT EDITOR ​
  • Reference for learning the Forth language: Starting Forth (1st edition) by Leo Brodie (online version)
  • fbForth manual in post #1 of above link
• TurboForth: TurboForth - A fast Forth for the TI-99-4A and various threads on this forum
  • Good tutorials on the website
  • 2nd edition of Brodie’s book is better for this version of Forth

There are also a few folks on this forum that can help.

 

I will be talking about fbForth 2.0 at the Faire Nov. 1.

 

...lee

[+adamantyr]

Gee, didn't take long for Forth to get mentioned.

 

I'd start with the Beginner's BASIC book, and just familiarize yourself with the language again. There's LOTS of good TI books available, I agree that the "Creating Arcade Games for the TI-99/4a" is a great choice; most of the programs in there are in BASIC and surprisingly ambitious for the platform. (Side note, the author, Seth McEvoy, was also the author of the junior fiction series "Not Quite Human" which had a couple made-for-TV Disney movies back in the 80's.)

 

One way to start is to think about a game that you could write in BASIC and just set about implementing it. I found when I dug my TI back out years ago, the first thing I wanted to do was write a bunch of programs I dreamed about when I was young and couldn't figure out how to do.

[Willsy]

That's 'cos Forth is great! :-)

[am1933]

Programmer's reference Guide to the TI99/4a (by Compute Publications), Compute always made fairly well structured and easy to understand manuals.

 

Compute's Beginners Guide to Assembly Language on the TI99/4a, this is also a fairly straightforward introduction to assembly and it takes you through the practical entry steps one at a time.

 

The Last Word on the TI99/4a by Tab books is also a pretty soft introduction, it goes from a very simplistic introduction and gradually builds up towards Extended Basic, there is also a good breakdown of the various program sections with explanations on what each part of the program does.

Edited October 24, 2014 by am1933

[firepod]

Thank you guys, all of your posted are appreciated!!!!!

 

Gee, didn't take long for Forth to get mentioned.

 

I'd start with the Beginner's BASIC book, and just familiarize yourself with the language again. There's LOTS of good TI books available, I agree that the "Creating Arcade Games for the TI-99/4a" is a great choice; most of the programs in there are in BASIC and surprisingly ambitious for the platform. (Side note, the author, Seth McEvoy, was also the author of the junior fiction series "Not Quite Human" which had a couple made-for-TV Disney movies back in the 80's.)

 

One way to start is to think about a game that you could write in BASIC and just set about implementing it. I found when I dug my TI back out years ago, the first thing I wanted to do was write a bunch of programs I dreamed about when I was young and couldn't figure out how to do.

 

When I read your post, I have to admit this is how my brain works haha, I am fully in that same mode as you were years back. Looking forward to creating some fun programs and games with the TI. I have cracked open Beginners Basic and really do like the way it is written, just seems clear with added input that I enjoy reading. I will then move on to "Creating Arcade games for the Ti-99/4a" and then I should have enough knowledge to just go wherever which is the goal.

[+Vorticon]

when I had my Ti back in the mid 80's early 90's I only had Ti Basic, could not afford the upgrades so all the Extended and Super is new to me.

 

All I could afford when I first bought my TI was the console and a crappy used cassette recorder, and this was where things stayed from 81 to 86, until I moved on to the PC world. I remember poring over the Triton catalogues of the time and making wish lists of the upgrades I wanted, and that did not materialize until I got back to the TI in 1996! And yet I recall creating all sorts of programs in TI Basic, only one of which unfortunately still survives (TI Puck on the Gameshelf site), including number crunching and data analysis programs for my college courses and painstakingly transferring the results by hand to paper since I did not have a printer. Good old days