DarkBasic Pro Tutorial: Printing Text

All games and most application draw text on the screen to display information to the user. This process is simplified in DarkBasic Professional by way of the "Print" command. If you would like to learn how to draw text anywhere on the user's screen using DarkBasic Pro follow this tutorial.

The Print Command

One of the most common commands in DarkBasic Profession is the "Print" command. The print command allow the developer to draw strings and values on the user's screen. However, the Print command is very linear and basic because it prints in a DOS style method. For example, whenever you call the print command the text will automatically appear on the left hand side of the screen and one line below the previous Print.

The position of the next Print command is controlled by a type of cursor. Controlling this cursor will allow you position the text anywhere on the screen. It will also allow you to call multiple print commands all in the same line or in multiple lines. Here are some examples on how to use the Print command:

Print "My Text"

The above code will simply print the text, "My Text", next to the cursor.

Print "Test"
Print "String"

This will write "Test" and then "String" under "Test".

When you call the Print command the cursor is automatically moved one line down. You can override this feature by placing a semicolon after the Print command.

Print "This is";
Print "One Line"

This will draw the text, "This is One Line", all in one line on the screen.

If you would like to change the position of where the text is to be draw you will have to move the cursor using the "Set Cursor" command, like so:

Do
Set Cursor 240, 100
Print "This text is at 240, 100"
Loop

You can also draw certain variables and strings using the Print command.

myStr = "Test"
Print "The string myStr contains:" ;myStr

The above code will result in "The string myStr contains: Test".