need help with qbasic program

[Eric]

i was wondering if anyone can help me....i am trying to write a program that
>prints the following output:
>*
>**
>***
>****
>*****
>******
>
>i tried to write it as follows:
>
>i=o
>n=6
>do unitl (i<n)
> print "*"
> i=i+1
>loop
>stop
>end
>
>I know i am missing an instruction but i can't think >what it is. because my
>output is only print 1 * on each line. Can you give me >some advice on this.
>and then also if i add color to it, how would i make it >blink? Any help
>would be appreciated.....thanks

[programmer]

well im not sure wuts rong with your program but heres how i would do it

======================================
SCREEN 12
CLS
FOR q = 0 TO 15
COLOR q
LOCATE 1
SLEEP 1
PRINT "*"
PRINT "**"
PRINT "***"
PRINT "****"
PRINT "*****"
PRINT "******"
NEXT
=======================================
that makes it blink 16 colors

[brisray]

The mistake is the line PRINT "*"

Without a ";" on the end the PRINT statement will add a CRLF (carriage return + line feed).

To do what to want it to do you could use :-

CLS
Num = 10
FOR Counter = 1 TO Num
FOR Count = 1 TO Counter
PRINT "*";
NEXT Count
PRINT
NEXT Counter

Funnily enough I made a mistake when testing this and put :-

CLS
Num = 10
FOR Counter = 1 TO Num
FOR Count = 1 TO Count
PRINT "*";
NEXT Count
PRINT
NEXT Counter

which also works

Though a much simpler solution is to use the STRING$ command :-

FOR Count = 1 TO 10
PRINT STRING$(Count, "*")
NEXT Count

or

FOR Count = 1 TO 10
PRINT STRING$(Count, CHR$(42))
NEXT Count

Ray

[TdinoW]

I copied a Mario code and it doesnt work
HERE IS THE PROBLEM:

IF tr <22 THEN IF MID$(L$(tr), tc, 1) = "[] THEN tr = otr: ELSE g = INT(RND*2+1)

IT asks for a THEN statment but I dont know were. I just dont know what the problem is, can you help?

[brisray]

This is one reason why it's not a good idea to put multiple programming lines on one using :
It looks like it's saving space but it isn't worth the hassle it can cause.

Having said that the cause is really quite simple. Its the MID$(L$(tr), tc, 1) = "[] part. There is no terminating " to the string literal.

Try

IF tr < 22 THEN
IF MID$(L$(tr), tc, 1) = "[" THEN tr = otr
ELSE g = INT(RND * 2 + 1)

Now you'll get another error message, this time saying "Block IF without END IF." This is because the code should look like this :-

IF tr < 22 THEN
IF MID$(L$(tr), tc, 1) = "[" THEN tr = otr
ELSE g = INT(RND * 2 + 1)
END IF

Ray

[brisray]

Just to open another can of worms. It's about the variable names in the code you provided.

Some people say that using short variable names is preferable because it cuts down on spelling mistakes and makes typing the program faster.

To my mind, these people have never had to debug programs that someone else has written using this format nor have they revisited code they've written weeks, months or years earlier.

It really is easier if you use longer, more English (or whatever language) names for variables. tr could be anything or nothing whereas names like SpriteXPosn, NatInsNo or SocSecNo at least gives a clue of what the variable does and what it should contain.

Ray

[pebe]

I'll agree with that 100%, brisray.

The other very necessary requirement is to document sections with a ' or REM, explaining them. Saves hours of work later on when you revisit.