1) No, I don't think so. Actually, that is one of the things I like about basic over other languages. You could just do all your variables as arrays, for example, instead of variable "life", use "life()" with the dim statement. You can make the arrays hold only one value, or use the same array for many variables, such as "playerstatus(10)", 1 for lives, 2 for health, 3 for x position, etc., etc.. Otherwise, you could just learn to spell correctly.
2) Yes, go to compile, then "
Run in Debug Mode". You can also press F6.