Using This Handbook

The ibPro Handbook is not a Windows Help file, although it is in the Windows HTML Help file format. The ibPro Handbook provides support for programmers, and programming learners, using the IBasic Professional programming system. Much of the material here is available in the ibPro built-in "Users Guide" help file, but a good deal of it represents extensions, enhancements, and improvements on the original material, with contributions from the Pyxia Development Forum, the IBasic Wiki, and authors and programmers presenting their original material specifically for this publication.

The material here is organized for both learning and reference, according to the TOPS content development model. KNowing a little about TOPS — Task Oriented Performance Support — will help you get the most out of this handbook.

TOPS: Quick Start

TOPS organizes instruction according to performance, not blocks of concepts and rules and references. So, instead of teaching someone all about BASIC's specifications and history, we'd teach how to use it.

Information components in the TOPS system are Tours, Topics, Tasks, Tutorials, Tests, and Tools. In general, a TOPS document is a structured assembly of these components, organized so the reader can readily identify the components and their purpose:

• Tours show what something looks like, how its parts are arranged
• Topics detail the concepts, knobs, buttons, functions, or principles used in Tasks
• Tasks list the sequences of procedures, steps, or operations required for performing various jobs
• Tutorials explain how it works and how to use it
• Tests validate the students' progress
• Tools provide the support materials and resources to access and organize the other components

Each of these components is a useful information chunk on its own, and all of them are grouped, assembled, and sequenced to produce the final instructional or performance support module.