For a complete beginner's guide to BlitzMax I recommend reading this document:
How come stuff like that wasn't already in the documentation? It's been a year, so the documentation should have been improved by now.
I've been trying to help Thief, but frankly he has no prior experience with programming and with documentation like this he really just can't work this out.
The documentation, as is, is pathetic. It's easily the weakest point of the entire package, and when beginners/the-completely-inexperienced buy something like this they need proper, well-written documentation. This should be first and foremost on the todo list.