okay, now for some reason alerts don't work any more, even when I coppy them from the Manuals. here is an alert I wroat.
alert("random alert", "you have been found guilty of having opened this alert and shall be terminated!");

The alert syntax you have written seems to be correct, so the error possibly could be in regards to another area of your code. If you can't find the problem, try posting the entire file again for assistance (if it isn't too large of course).

If you are still working through the tutorial, I really don't think you should be trying a project of this size anyway. Have you considered how you're going to keep track of all the player's cards? Yes, it's possible to just add variables, like so:
int card3;
int card4;
But this is a bit of a mess. The situation here screams array. You will be able to add and subtract cards from the array with simple function calls, rather than having a bunch of unused variables allocated.
As to your alert error, can you post the entire code in which the alert is being called? The syntax above appears to be correct. My guess is you're missing a closing symbol or a semicolon above the alert and that the engine doesn't like you calling a function inside another like this. Errors dont' necessarily refer to the line in question; that's just how the engine perceives them.

okay here is my code again. strangely I didn't modify anything in the alert sections, but it gave me these Errors.
code:
void main
{
alert("wellcome to.", "cm blackjack, version 1.0");
string cards="card1, card2";
int card1=random(1, 10);
int card2=random(1, 10);
string message_string="Your two starting cards are " + card1 + " and " + card2 + ". hit okay to continue.";
alert("Your cards", message_string);
errors:
File: F:\downloads\testing\cm blackjack\cm blackjack.bgt
On line: 3 (1)
Line: alert("wellcome to.", "cm blackjack, version 1.0");
Error: Expected one of: get, set, }

File: F:\downloads\testing\cm blackjack\cm blackjack.bgt
On line: 3 (1)
Line: alert("wellcome to.", "cm blackjack, version 1.0");
Error: Instead found 'alert'

File: F:\downloads\testing\cm blackjack\cm blackjack.bgt
On line: 8 (6)
Line: alert("Your cards", message_string);
Error: Expected identifier

File: F:\downloads\testing\cm blackjack\cm blackjack.bgt
On line: 8 (6)
Line: alert("Your cards", message_string);
Error: Instead found '('

hello, something completely different this time. there seems to be something wrong with my seperating of code blocks, but I have no idea what it is. please look at this code.
void main()
{
alert("welcome!", "rore! I am the infamous zombifier! cower before me!.");
alert("how to play", "this is a simple bop it stile game. hit the correct arrow key for the sound you here. if you get it wrong or if the time runs out, you lose.");
int answer = question("ready?", "are you ready to get munched? you will aventually!");
if(answer==0)
{
alert("uh...","who let the zombs out. oh... well doesn't look like this is working!");
}
if(answer==1)
{
alert("very good!", "lets go then.");
}
if(answer==2)
{
alert("who cares?", "does it look like I care? does it look like the zombs care? all they want is your flesh! you can quit by hitting exit or escape anyway.. ready or not, here they come!");
}
show_game_window("zombie attack");
dynamic_menu menu;
menu.add_item_tts("release the zombies!");
menu.add_item_tts("shooting practice");
menu.add_item_tts("exit arena");
menu.allow_escape = true;
menu.wrap = true;
menu.run("main menu.", true);
}

It works fine for me, if I add #include "dynamic_menu.bgt" to the top.
It exits after the menu, but that appears to be expected.

oh and just so you guys know, the code I posted on here is actually not for any games I am planning to make, at least not very soon. once I fully get the Hang of programming, I might release them.

alert("hey!", "I got something to say. I'm so awesome, my awesomeness is aproaching... " + awesomeness + "!");
Don't put the quotes around the comma after hey, i.e leave it in the string. Also, what is the implementation of random_function?

I believe he is asking where is random function declared? In that code, there is no function entitled random_function()

That code won't compile or run unless you define the random_function() function.

Missing semicolon on the third line.  Missing definition of list_sound_devices, so even if you fix that it's still not going to compile.
Also, posting any error messages you get along with the program you're asking us to look over is a really, really big help in many cases.