When a project is running then the Programming Taskbook window appears on screen. Here is the window for the Begin3 task that is being solved in the Borland Delphi environment (a name of the used programming language is displayed at the title bar of the window).

The top of the window contains the following information: the task topic (e.g. "INPUT-OUTPUT AND ASSIGNMENT"), the task name ("Begin3"), personal student information ("Smith John :3"), date and time of a current program launching ("03/05 20:25"). Tasks that are marked by the symbol "°" are available in the Mini Edition of Programming Taskbook. The next panel contains a task text.

Below this you see a panel of input data. For the Begin3 task this panel contains a and b real numbers that define lengths of the rectangle sides. Data may be supplied with comments. In this case the comments are "a=" and "b=".

The last window panel is a panel of control data and results that has two tabs labeled "Example of right solution" and "Results obtained". If input-output operations are not executed then the "Example of right solution" tab is active; this tab contains the control output data (i.e. correct data). In this case the tab contains the correct values of the area (S) and perimeter (P) of the rectangle. To switch between tabs one should click on a required tab or press [Ctrl]+[Tab] hot key.

To distinguish comments from data the color highlighting is used. The comments are highlighted with light-grey color, and the data are yellow. The control data are displayed with the same color as the comments.

The status bar and "Exit" button are placed at the bottom of the window. To close Programming Taskbook window click the "Exit" button or press [Esc] key or the key that provides a program running (it is [F9] key for Borland Delphi and C++ Builder, [F5] key for Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual Studio .NET). So you may press the running key ([F9] or [F5]) several times to test the program with various input data.

If the task text contains more than 5 lines or the task contains file data then the window has scroll buttons that allows to scroll the task text or file components (see the picture below).

File components are highlighted with light-cyan color to distinguish them from standard input-output data and comments.

To scroll file content click one of two scroll buttons located on the right of a corresponding screen line. It is possible to scroll data list with keyboard. For scrolling by one item press [Right] or [Down] (scrolling forward) and [Left] or [Up] (scrolling backward). For scrolling by group of items press [Ctrl]+[Right] or [PgDn] (scrolling forward) and [Ctrl]+[Left] or [PgUp] (scrolling backward). The [Home] key allows to move to the beginning of a data list and the [End] key allows to move to the end of a data list.

If the window contains several scrollable data lists (for example, several files), then scrolling by keyboard is available for a chosen list marked by black circle on the left side of window. To change the chosen scrollable list one should press [+] or [–] key. The [+] key provides circular selection of all scrollable lists from top to bottom, the [–] key provides circular selection in reverse direction.

To determine file components that are displayed on screen the marker of a current file position is used. The value of this marker is the order number of the first file component that is displayed on screen. This marker is located at the beginning of a string with the file components list and is separated from the list by colon. The order number of the first element of the file is assumed to be equal to 1.

It is necessary to note that the text file lines are displayed at several screen lines whereas the binary file components are displayed at one screen line.

Also you can scroll a task text. The marker of a current position is located on the left of the panel with the task text. It contains a number of a first text line that is displayed on screen. If the marker is underlined then the further scrolling is impossible (see picture).

The Programming Taskbook window can display special elements of input and output data: chains of nodes. These elements are used in the "Dynamic" task group (see picture below). Features connected with displaying of node chains are described in the sections devoted to "Dynamic" group for Pascal, C++, C# and Visual Basic .NET.

When the program is running in the demo mode additional buttons are displayed at the bottom of the window. They provide access to the next or previous task of a chosen task group and allow to browse a various sets of input and control data for a chosen task. The "Example of right solution" tab is always active in the demo mode.

When the window is active you can press key [F1] to get information about a version of Programming Taskbook, data types which should be used in the solutions of tasks, and additional information about tasks initialization and data input-output. The information window content depends on a chosen programming language. Screenshots of Help windows are placed at the beginning of the sections devoted to the Pascal, Visual Basic, C++, C# and Visual Basic .NET programming languages.

Last revised: 11.05.2008