From: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Robert Meunier)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: Re: QB5.0 wish list {Was: Re: 16 bit INP/OUT ...}
Date: 8 Sep 92 17:07:40 GMT
Reply-To: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca
Organization: Hydro-Quebec (IREQ)

In article J13@phage.cshl.org, boutell@cshl.org (Tom Boutell) writes:
>In article <Bu21uG.CCr@ireq.hydro.qc.ca> robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca writes:
>>
>>and 
>>	- support for pointer. That is a must.
>
>	Actually I'd rather *not* see pointers in BASIC. As a person who codes
>	all the time in C and likes it, I nonetheless like the purity of
>	BASIC's call - by - reference, no - pointers syntax. Call by reference
>	provides power enough at the scale BASIC is intended to work. (Indeed,
>	it covers most of the normal uses of pointers.) Yes, I know a heap would
>	be handy, but the language also has variable length strings, another
>	common reason for pointer usage... I'd say it would be a mistake.
>

	There is many occasion were I need pointer. Actually, i'm getting
the pointer with varptr() and varseg(), pass it to a function which usually
do a mem copy (i'm using bcopy from QuickPak).




>>	- array inside structure (only available in PBDS7.1)
>
>	Agreed. It's a very nice touch. I'm also tempted to ask for anonymous unions,
>	but they might be more trouble than they're worth.
>
>	I'm told there's a shareware BASIC compiler out there. Perhaps if we 
>	supported that author we might get the features we're asking for.
>
>	Some of these features may well be in Power BASIC already, come to think 
>	of it. Anyone know?
>

	I won't even consider changing compiler. Usually, you get something by
trading something else.




>>	- conditionnal compilation like in C
>
>	Ah, the eternal #ifdef. The problem here, with both conditional compilation
>	and macros, is that they're somewhat at odds with the threaded -
>	interpreter environment. Not saying it's impossible, but doing them inside
>	that environment would, I suspect, be very tricky indeed.
>
>	However, it's quite easy to write your own preprocessor, if you're willing
>	not to use the environment.
>

	I think Crescent as a preprocessor. Or maybe the company that make ProBas.
I don't use the environment. I have about 2 mb of code separated in about 300
program. Also, i like to use my editor. With DeskView, I almost have the same
thing. One window for the editor, one for the compiler and a last one for the
application. 



>>	- Some sort of Object Oriented feature
>
>	Not a bad idea. Visual BASIC is already moving in this direction. But
>	you can write very object - oriented code with the existing user - defined
>	types and a strong naming convention, again thanks to the wonders of
>	call by reference.
>
>


	I heard that VB is an interpreter. You need it to run your application.
Is that true?



	Since I program alot with both Basic and C++, sometime I would like
a combination of both. I may have to chose!



---
Robert Meunier                     Institut de Recherche d'Hydro-Quebec
Ingenieur                          1800 Montee Ste-Julie, Varennes
Internet: robert@ireq.hydro.qc.ca  Qc, Canada, J3X 1S1 
maintainer: BASIC mailing list request to basic-request@ireq.hydro.qc.ca
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic