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Does anyone know if there is a formal or informal "school" to learn PBP. If so, I would like to take some classes on how to improve my coding. Most of what I do is if-then statements and I don't feel like I am getting all I should by using PBP. I can usually get the job done but while I use 1K worth of coding, someone who is experienced may only use something like 200 words.
There is no "school" that I'm aware of. A lot of what I use for PICBasic I got in high school. (I took an QBasic course) The other way to go is a book (or two), there are a number of good books out there to learn from.
That being said the user manual says it best when it states that progarmming is an "art." For me it was a lot of practice and asking good questions. My early programs were rough but they got the job done, and best of all I learned from doing.
The latest issue of Servo magazine has an add for a company providing hands-on classes for PBP. Here's a link to their website: http://www.rcgresearch.com/PIC.htm
Thanks for the info. I learned Pbasic in high school and needless to say, I wish I would have paid attention more! Those courses are pretty damn expensive. If there isn't anything cheaper, maybe I'll just continue to be frustrated and post my questions to this forum. After all, experience is how I learn the most and also how things get "burned" into my brain. If anyone knows of something cheaper or a good book, let me know. The manual is good but when I look at some of the codes on this forum, I get lost pretty easily.
Do you really want to know my own opinion of the school. I'll give it anyway ;)
School is the place where you learn 'how to learn'
Real life is the place where you really learn.
The only thing you can do in your spare time, is to use a working code and try to shrink it as much as you can. Use IF THEN instead of WHILE, and so on.
You'll be surprise how code you can save by removing few of pre-built funstion like SERIN, SERIN2, HSERIN, ADCIN, HPWM, BUTTON, SOUND, PULSOUT to name only those and build your own.
Same things apply when using maths, bitwise op, and , and, and. Amazing how codespace you can save when you play with them.
As i already said, when i have spare time, i like to play with my previous code and shrink them. In some case you don't just save codespace, you can also increase the speed of too.
School will NEVER teach you the right method. They will just tell you how things work or have to work by using the method of a single person (the teacher). Thereafter you have to work and find your own method, the ultimate one. But is there a Ultimate method... NO! There's just better than other... OR MUCH better than other :D
Hi, "Old" Picmen
I do not agree with you ...
A "Pic School" exists : just go to the Parallax site !!!
http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/edu/index.asp
Once having read ( and understood ...) all this stuff, ... no more "RTFM" answers left ...
Alain
I agree with Acetronics, spending time on the parallax site is worth while. You may want to also look through the Resources->Applications. These are examples written parallax and its user and work in PICBasic. I recently used an example from the site for a project I was doing.
Its an awesome resource and worth looking into.