PeteCotton said  

Very well done. I can appreciate the amount of effort you've put into this.

I have often thought that it would be fun to have a mixture of different MMBasic "learn to program" books (like David Ahl's program books).

Geoff/Peter have done an excellent job with the manuals for MMBasic. But different takes on the subject are often useful for when people get stuck with a concept.

Look at the Amstrad/Schneider CPC manual. It was a brilliant introduction to Basic and came free with the computer. But there were still a plethora of books for learning Basic on, or writing adventure games etc.

Keep up the great work!

Thank you very much for your kind words, Pete!

I completely agree with your point. Geoff and Peter have created excellent reference manuals for MMBasic, and I use them myself almost every day. My tutorial is not intended to replace those manuals, but to complement them from a beginner's perspective.

Like the classic BASIC books from the 1980s, my goal is to teach programming step by step through complete, working examples and small projects rather than by simply describing language features.

I also have very fond memories of the manuals that came with home computers such as the Amstrad/Schneider CPC. They inspired many people to start programming, and I'd be delighted if this tutorial could do the same for a new generation of MMBasic users.

Thank you again for your encouragement!

Hello Manfred,
Brilliant work I think this is the book I would have bought and I will tell you why.

Teaching programming with complete programs instead of fragments is the key. After you have learned the commands you still have to find out how to use them and which possibilities they give to you. Just to know the command does not automatically mean to understand how it can contribute to the problem you want to solve, doesn't it.

Whenever I learned new programming languages, I always looked for source code I can learn from. That's probably why I love Open Source and Free Software especially. It allows you to look over the shoulder of programmers who solved your kind of problem already.

Of course, it is not easy find the right part of a program with hundreds or thousands of lines of code. But here your tutorial brings the real benefit. Small pieces of code, easy to understand and in a context which makes experiments easy. A nice twist is that your example programs invite for these experiments   (at least that one I looked at).

It would be great if your examples could consider the differences of the various systems and their MM Basic specifics (DOS MMBasic, Picomite, CMM2). This would help to port programs from one system to another and make your book attractive not only for beginners. But maybe I ask for too much.

Keep going with your good work and if you want to use some of my programs or parts of them (My Repository, please feel free to do so.

Cheers
Matthias

  joker said  

Hello Manfred,
Brilliant work I think this is the book I would have bought and I will tell you why.

Teaching programming with complete programs instead of fragments is the key. After you have learned the commands you still have to find out how to use them and which possibilities they give to you. Just to know the command does not automatically mean to understand how it can contribute to the problem you want to solve, doesn't it.

Whenever I learned new programming languages, I always looked for source code I can learn from. That's probably why I love Open Source and Free Software especially. It allows you to look over the shoulder of programmers who solved your kind of problem already.

Of course, it is not easy find the right part of a program with hundreds or thousands of lines of code. But here your tutorial brings the real benefit. Small pieces of code, easy to understand and in a context which makes experiments easy. A nice twist is that your example programs invite for these experiments   (at least that one I looked at).

It would be great if your examples could consider the differences of the various systems and their MM Basic specifics (DOS MMBasic, Picomite, CMM2). This would help to port programs from one system to another and make your book attractive not only for beginners. But maybe I ask for too much.

Keep going with your good work and if you want to use some of my programs or parts of them (My Repository, please feel free to do so.

Cheers
Matthias

Hi Matthias,

thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback.

I think you perfectly described the main idea behind this tutorial.

My goal has never been to write another language reference manual. Geoff's and Peter's manuals already do that exceptionally well.

Instead, I wanted to create the kind of book that I would have liked to have when learning a new programming language myself: lots of complete, working programs that can be explored, modified and extended.

That's also the reason why I'm currently creating and verifying a separate .bas file for every larger example in the book. Readers should be able to download a program, run it immediately and start experimenting.

I also like your suggestion regarding the different MMBasic platforms. The tutorial currently focuses mainly on PicoMite and Colour Maximite 2, but I will think about adding notes where platform-specific differences are relevant. That would certainly make the examples even more useful.

And thank you very much for your generous offer to use your programs. I really appreciate it and will certainly have a look at your repository.

Cheers,
Manfred

  ManiB said  

Hello everyone,

Would a comprehensive English beginner's tutorial for MMBasic be useful to the community?

Yes!!!....Brian

Sorry...somehow I inadvertently change the title of the post.
Edited 2026-08-03 02:06 by Briano

  Briano said  

  ManiB said  

Hello everyone,

Would a comprehensive English beginner's tutorial for MMBasic be useful to the community?

Yes!!!....Brian

Sorry...somehow I inadvertently change the title of the post.

Hi Brian,

I've started a new GitHub repository for the English version of the tutorial:MyFirstMMBasicProgram

The project is still in its early stages, but my goal is to create a beginner-friendly step-by-step introduction to MMBasic for both the PicoMite and the Colour Maximite 2.

The repository already contains the basic project structure, a roadmap, a TODO list, and contribution guidelines. The tutorial itself will grow chapter by chapter over time.

Feedback, suggestions, and contributions are always welcome!

Best regards,

Manfred