Awhile back I decided to try to relearn Basic.I had gained the knowledge in the 1970s,so in theory,it should still be available for recall.(I do remember a lot of pre-1996 stuff)So,full of enthusiasm I set out to get some books on the subject,a really basic PC to practice on(Thanks,Tandy 100!)and some advice from other Forum members.These seemed all the right steps.Little did I know what my next discovery about corroded pathways would reveal.
I picked a Basic Tutorial with examples to begin.It was very straight forward,clear and concise.I start to read,get through Chapter 1 and attempt to do the Quiz at the end.I got 75%,not too bad.I go back and reread the chapter again,take the Quiz and again score 75%.(!??!)What the heck?!Ok,maybe it's just me.I decide to move on to the actual lessons .Basic is pretty simple.It should be very easy to relearn the Basic commands and remember what they do,right?It's not going to be that easy.
Every paragraph with a Command Word is read and reread about 10 times.Each time I put the book down a try to do the command on my Tandy.I just do not recall it.Crap,now what!?!Learning will build new pathways,but you need to read,understand and retain the words to make a pathway.I gave this a lot of thought.At last,I found a partial solution.
I decided to try to "Learn by Doing".I got out a book with exercises on using Basic commands and started typing.This worked a lot better for me than reading did!I only had to repeat the exercise 4 or 5 times to pretty much remember the command.Progress!Yay!!
Needless to say,I'm still working on it,alittle at a time,while reviewing all the words I had learned earlier.So my progress is slow.But it IS progress!I suppose just like every 12 Step Program,it's going to be 1 Day at a time.
Meanwhile,I'll try not to "Kill" any of the PCs I have to work on.Maybe I can relearn some soldering skills.....
I picked a Basic Tutorial with examples to begin.It was very straight forward,clear and concise.I start to read,get through Chapter 1 and attempt to do the Quiz at the end.I got 75%,not too bad.I go back and reread the chapter again,take the Quiz and again score 75%.(!??!)What the heck?!Ok,maybe it's just me.I decide to move on to the actual lessons .Basic is pretty simple.It should be very easy to relearn the Basic commands and remember what they do,right?It's not going to be that easy.
Every paragraph with a Command Word is read and reread about 10 times.Each time I put the book down a try to do the command on my Tandy.I just do not recall it.Crap,now what!?!Learning will build new pathways,but you need to read,understand and retain the words to make a pathway.I gave this a lot of thought.At last,I found a partial solution.
I decided to try to "Learn by Doing".I got out a book with exercises on using Basic commands and started typing.This worked a lot better for me than reading did!I only had to repeat the exercise 4 or 5 times to pretty much remember the command.Progress!Yay!!
Needless to say,I'm still working on it,alittle at a time,while reviewing all the words I had learned earlier.So my progress is slow.But it IS progress!I suppose just like every 12 Step Program,it's going to be 1 Day at a time.
Meanwhile,I'll try not to "Kill" any of the PCs I have to work on.Maybe I can relearn some soldering skills.....