Moving BBC program from PC to Andriod

[atom058]

Hello - I am one of the millions that are now isolated at home (Covid-19) and thought this would be a great time to learn how to write an app for Android. I am fairly proficient with the BASIC language (QuickBASIC and VB6) and thought BBC BASIC would be place to start. I have an application that I want to develop that will read a file, do some simple calculations and spit out an answer. I have installed BBC SDL and have written the program on my PC and it works (!). Now I want to run it on my Android tablet. I have installed the Android version on my tablet and can use the TouchIDE program. So, my question is, how do I get the .BBC program that I wrote on my PC into a directory on my tablet where I can run it with TouchIDE? My program now exists on my tablet in the Download directory (I emailed it to myself), but I can't get the TouchIDE program to navigate to it. I am not ready to use the BBC2APK program to convert it to an APK, because the program is not finished... How can I get this file into a directory where I can open it? Help, please?

[RichardRussell]

How can I get this file into a directory where I can open it? Help, please?

The easiest way is to connect your Android device to your PC using a USB cable. You should find that the Android device appears as an external drive to Windows (e.g. D:\ or whatever the next free drive letter is) and this should allow you to navigate through Android's file system. Sometimes you need to enable this on your mobile device in Settings.. System... Developer options.

Although it can vary a little between devices and/or versions of Android, typically you will want to navigate to Android/data/com.rtrussell.bbcbasic/files. This directory is the one referenced as @usr$ in BBC BASIC.

One particular advantage of this method is that you can simultaneously access your program (and any resource files it may need) from both your PC and the Android device. So if you need to edit your program you can do so more easily using the 'full' IDE on the PC than the somewhat limited touchide on the device.

Having said all that, since you have already got your program in the Downloads directory you can alternatively use your File Manager to move it into data/com.rtrussell.bbcbasic/files and then access it from @usr$, but then you lose the convenience of editing it 'live' on the PC.

If any iOS BBC BASIC users are reading this, sadly you cannot mount your device as a remote drive in the same way, but you can use iTunes to access the @usr$ directory and at least very easily copy files in either direction.

[atom058]

Richard - Thank you so much! That worked! I copied my program to that directory and was able to run it with the TouchIDE. Very happy! I have other questions, but will post them in separate topics... This topic solved! Thanks again!