Parallax, Inc. • BASIC Stamp HomeWork Board ver 1.1
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Table 5
Coding functions
shortcut keys.
Shortcut Key
Function
F6 or Ctrl+I
Identify BASIC Stamp firmware
F7 or Ctrl+T
Perform a syntax check on code and display
error messages
F8 or Ctrl+M
Open Memory Map window
F9 or Ctrl+R
Tokenize code, download to BASIC Stamp
and open DEBUG window if necessary
Ctrl+
Switch to Editor window
ESC
Close current window
Memory Map
The BASIC Stamp Windows Editor also features a Memory Map. The left side displays the amount of EEPROM
being used by the current PBASIC program and any data you have stored. Put your cursor over the small yellow
box and slide it up and down to see how much of the EEPROM your program is using. The right side of the
Memory Map shows RAM (variables) register usage. Type CTRL+M, or press F7, to activate the Memory Map.
Figure 11
Memory Map
example showing
EEPROM usage
(left side) and
RAM usage (right
side).
BASIC and Parallax BASIC
BASIC (standing for Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was written (invented) in 1963, at
Dartmouth College, by mathematicians John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtzas as a teaching tool for
undergraduates. BASIC's popularity was spread by both Paul Allen and William Gates, in 1975. Gates and Allen
(both Microsoft founding fathers) wrote a version of BASIC for the Altair personal computer. It was the first
product Microsoft sold. Later Gates and Microsoft wrote versions of BASIC for the Apple computer, and IBM's
DOS which Gates provided came with its' version of BASIC.
Parallax BASIC Stamps are programmed in PBASIC. This language is intended to be a simple, easy to learn
language that is also well suited for the BASIC Stamp’s architecture. It includes many of the instructions featured
in other forms of BASIC (GOTO, FOR...NEXT, IF...THEN) as well as some specialized instructions (SERIN,
PWM, BUTTON, COUNT and DTMFOUT). The BASIC Stamp Manual on the CD-ROM includes an extensive
section devoted to each of the available instructions.
