TI-BASIC/Begin

example of an empty screen with a courser flashing

This course does not require any programming experience whatsoever, but it is a nice plus if you have any. To begin learning TI-BASIC, the only requirement is a recent Texas Instuments graphing calculator like the TI-84. The best way to learn TI-BASIC is to use it in real life, so press the program button (3 rows above the number buttons) which opens a menu of programs. Press right, which changes the top row where EDIT is highlighted instead of EXEC, indicating these are the programs that are editable.

what the screen might show, notice the top highlights EDIT.

Press right one more time to highlight NEW to indicate you wish create a new program. Press enter. Now type in the name of the program you wish to create, for example "test", by pushing 2ND, then ALPHA and typing the word with the letters seen above the buttons.

Hello World

We are about to make the infamous Hello World program, which is notorious in programming circles as the rite of passage into a language. The first step is to begin editing "TEST", which you are if it was just created. Press program, which now rather opens a list of functions possible for use in a program.

this is the program being created

Press right, to highlight "I/O" for input/output and press 3 (or down twice) which selects Disp (Display) as a function to be used in the program.

what the screen should look like if the program has finished running

Now type "hello world" (it is important to use the quotes) to tell the program you wish to have it display hello world. Push 2ND and QUIT (above MODE) to stop editing TEST, next is to open EXEC in programs and press down continuously until TEST is selected and push ENTER. Press ENTER once more and the program will execute, displaying HELLO WORLD.

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