HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: asgeir@viking.asd.sgi.com (Asgeir Eiriksson)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.ml
Subject: Standard ML of NJ on SGI on 4.0.1
Date: 16 Nov 1992 23:32:37 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: viking.asd.sgi.com

Anyone out there in netland install Standard ML of NJ on an SGI machine
running IRIX release 4.0.1?

When I run 'makeml -sgi irix' it doesn't compile. I'd like some feedback
from the net before I try to fix the Makefiles, etc. 

Thanks, 'Asgeir
From: schultz@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu (Schultz)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.ml
Subject: arrays
Date: 17 Nov 92 21:48:19 GMT
Organization: Radford University



Newsgroups: comp.lang.ml
Subject: general


	I have two questions.  Is there a two dimensional arrays
	in standard ML of NJ? How do you declare them and how do you
	refernce them?


	and How do you load a signature.  I tried loadSig"SIG" but
	a syntax error.

	Thanks in advance.


Newsgroups: comp.lang.ml
Subject: arrays



Newsgroups: comp.lang.ml
Subject: general


	I have two questions.  Is there a two dimensional arrays
	in standard ML of NJ? How do you declare them and how do you
	refernce them?


	and How do you load a signature.  I tried loadSig"SIG" but
	a syntax error.

	Thanks in advance.
Newsgroups: alt.lang.ml
From: daveb@harlqn.co.uk (Dave Berry)
Subject: Re: SML & comp.lang.func FAQ
Keywords: Standard ML, gofer, miranda, etc...
Organization: Harlequin Ltd, Cambridge, UK
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 11:50:22 GMT

This is a bit out of date.  Unfortunately I don't have an up-to-date version
to hand.  Here are a couple of important changes.

pat@cs.strath.ac.uk (Pat Prosser) writes:
>The following report is available from the LFCS (Dorothy McKie,
>dam@ecsvax.ed.ac.uk) and is free.

Dorothy retired recently.  Lorraine Edgar now handles these reports.
Her address is lme@lfcs.ed.ac.uk.  Also, these reports are no longer free.
I hope that they'll be made available by FTP, but don't hold your breath.

>The worldwide sml mailing list covers all aspects of Standard ML.
>Send subscription requests from Europe to sml-europe-request@lfcs.ed.ac.uk.
>Send subscription requests from elsewhere to sml-list-request@cs.cmu.edu
>Send contributions to sml-list@cs.cmu.edu.

Now all subscription requests should be sent to sml-list-request@cs.cmu.edu.

> Dave Berry, LFCS, Edinburgh Uni.      db%dcs.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk

Dave Berry, Harlequin Ltd.		daveb@harlequin.co.uk
From: garrigue@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Jacques Garrigue)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.ml
Subject: Re: ml questions
Date: 16 Nov 92 05:28:52 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Information Sc., University of Tokyo.

In article <BxrLnJ.A53@csn.org> sullivan@teal.csn.org (Steve Sullivan) writes:

 > 2.  How can I get a function to remember state?
 > 
 > In particular, I want to write a random number
 > generator that remembers it's last seed,
 > so the caller doesn't have to provide it.  Many modern
 > generators require hundreds of bytes of state info, so passing
 > that in and out on each call is very inefficient.
 > 
 > Simple example - how to get sml to do something like:
 > 
 > fun rand 1 = let val seed = ref 1 in !seed end   (* initialize and return 1 *)
 >   | rand 2 = (seed := (xx*seed) mod yy; !seed;)  (* update seed, return it *)
  That is just a problem of scoping. You need to have seed defined in
your two parts. This way it works.

	val rand = let val seed = ref 1 in
		fn 1 => (seed := 1; !seed)
		 | 2 => (seed := (xx*(!seed)) mod yy; !seed)
		end;

 > 3. Why not allow nonlinear patterns?  They wouldn't have to cover
 > the whole general matching problem - just allow, for example,
 >    fun (x,x) = ...
 > to bind the first x, and then fail if the second x doesn't match.
  That might be a good idea. However there might be some difficulties.
	1) You can't extend it to curried functions, like
		fun eq x x = true | eq _ _ = false;
	   because you risk incoherences : (fn x x => true) becomes
	   different from (fn x => fn x => true).
	2) You are hiding an equality test. It will often be clearer
	to have it explicit.

 > 4. Why not lazy functions?  Seems lazy and strict evaluation
 > could be mixed, with functions being lazy by default, and 
 > strict if:
 >   - they used any imperative features
 >   - they used any function which is strict
   That could be interesting. But you need a totally different
compilation scheme. Some MLs (Caml for instance) have data lazyness.
That is, some data structures are calculated only when looked for. It
is not as strong as what you describe, but can be useful.

Regards,	Jacques
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacques Garrigue	University of Tokyo	garrigue@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
	Inf. Sc.	Ecole Normale Superieure,Paris  garrigue@dmi.ens.fr
Newsgroups: alt.lang.ml
From: caplan@cs.uiuc.edu (Joshua Caplan)
Subject: help me with higher-ordered functors!
Keywords: functor modules
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:35:33 GMT

I got SML/NJ version 0.89 going, which allows functors as arguments
and results of functors, but I don't have a clue as to the syntax for
these things.  Furthermore, the curried functors in version 0.91 don't
seem to work; references to functors' parameters are unrecognized by
the compiler.  Somebody please give me the rundown on this or point me
to anonymously-accessible documentation!


-- 
------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
caplan@cs.uiuc.edu	|	Joshua Caplan
			|	Department of Computer Science
			|	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
From: sfk@otter.hpl.hp.com (Steve Knight)
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 16:58:11 GMT
Subject: Re: ml questions
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Newsgroups: alt.lang.ml

I'd like to add a few extra comments on Steve Sullivan's questions.

> 2.  How can I get a function to remember state?

The generic answer, which Jacques didn't explicitly state, is to use
a ref (or array) declared in a scope wider than the function -- so it
can outlive individual function calls.

> 3. Why not allow nonlinear patterns?  They wouldn't have to cover
> the whole general matching problem - just allow, for example,
>    fun (x,x) = ...
> to bind the first x, and then fail if the second x doesn't match.

I've never felt that there's a good answer to this question.  Unlike
Jacques, I am quite happy to generalise to curried functions and view
    fun f x x = ...
as distinct from
    fun f x = fn x => ...
or anything else.  In essence, there is an implicit scope running across
the pattern.

Obviously it introduces implicit equality tests.  This is a very good
thing in my view & far clearer and more concise than explicit conditional
tests.  In addition, I'd like SML to have included "guards" on clauses in
the style of Miranda.

> 4. Why not lazy functions?  Seems lazy and strict evaluation
> could be mixed, with functions being lazy by default, and 
> strict if:
>   - they used any imperative features
>   - they used any function which is strict

It is difficult to get good quality performance out of fully lazy systems.
Hybrid systems (such as HOPE) haven't met with much interest since they
omit the kind of capabilities that makes laziness interesting.  Furthermore,
lazy systems have hard-to-follow dynamic properties.  This makes debugging
very difficult and giving bounds on space and time very hard.

These considerations mean that the decision to go "fully lazy" or not
is a big and mostly irrevocable one.  The partially lazy solution you 
suggest would be vile to work with when you wanted to move from functional
to imperative implementations (even more than in SML!) because the
laziness property would vanish.  

The second part of the suggestion isn't
properly thought out -- the strict function might be protected by a 
conditional or a lambda form, to name the most obvious cases -- and would
lead to bizarre and undesirable results.  The extensive work on strictness
analysis takes the idea behind this suggestion and analyses it deeply.
You may like to follow this research thread up if you are interested in
getting good performance out of fully lazy systems.

Steve

Newsgroups: alt.lang.teco
From: rbook@owlnet.rice.edu (Robert Aaron Book)
Subject: Re: Public Domain Basic Source?
Keywords: Bywater BASIC
Organization: Rice University
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 04:11:34 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.222300.16240@nwnexus.WA.COM> shewchuk@halcyon.com (John Shewchuk) writes:
>Anyone know where to find source for a reasonably modern basic
>interpreter?

Try Bywater BASIC, available by anonymouse ftp from cs.duke.edu.  C
source is included in the distribution, along with make files for
compilation under UNIX or DOS (QuickC and TurboC++).

--Robert Book 	rbook@rice.edu
  Duke '91
From: zeta%tcscs@idss.nwa.com (Gregory Youngblood)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: Re: BASIC development
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 13:47:31 CST
Reply-To: srcsip!tcscs!zeta
Organization: TCS Consulting Services

rat@fullfeed.fullfeed.com (David Douthitt) writes:

> 
> Someone asked about BASIC development - there are several programs that
> have been written in BASIC.  There was one (small) Fidonet utility that
> came with BASIC source (created a message or packet I think).
> 
> Also, a Fidonet program called DoveMail (written by Jack Decker) was
> written in QuickBasic, I believe.  Dovemail allows you to send a batched
> Usenet news bundle with a Fidonet archive using Fidonet.
> 
> Also, Microsoft is due to come out with Visual BASIC for DOS or something,
> if they havent already...
> 
When I was digging into QWK packets, some of the reference numbers and other
data bits were quick basic (?) types of data.  I didn't understand at first
how it was only a quickbasic type of number, and I still don't, but that would
seem to imply that the person who created (or team of people) used basic
to initially create the QWK method for offline reading of mail and such.



.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.
.   TCS Consulting Services   P.O. Box 600008   St. Paul, MN  55106-0008    .
.   ..!srcsip!tcscs!zeta                 ..!src.honeywell.com!tcscs!zeta    .
.   zeta%tcscs@idss.nwa.com                      tcscs!zeta@idss.nwa.com    .
.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.
Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Tuesday, 17 Nov 1992 12:17:35 MST
From: <ICJPS@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: Re: Timing problem with QB 4.5

Try the TIMER function.  Returns a real, good to 2 decimals.  The fractional
portion is the 1/18ths part.
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: white@mineng.dmpe.csiro.au (robert white)
Subject: Email address of Thomas Hanlin III ?
Organization: CSIRO. Div of Mineral and Process Engineering.
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 01:49:31 GMT

Thomas wrote the BASWIZ library that I just got from Simtel-20.

I need some help to get it going.  Does anyone have an email address for
him?

Thanks in advance

Rob

-- 
Robert White  CSIRO Division of Mineral and Process Engineering
Bayview Avenue, Clayton  3168, Victoria AUSTRALIA  03 541 1222
DISCLAIMER:  I have no authority to speak on behalf of the CSIRO.
I am responsible for what I say, not them.
From: tabitha@vms.huji.ac.il
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: Re: basic not a real language
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:32:40 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

I couldn't agree more with the critics.  Basic is a retarded language
for brain damaged and emotionally stunted people.  But we inferior
races have a right to do things in our own backward way, don't we,
struggling along with our very limited capacities.

Why do  you critics make fun of mental cripples like us?  Why aren't
you spending your time creating killer apps with your real
languages?
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: ajwright@sacam.OREN.ORTN.EDU (Albert J Wright)
Subject: MCGA and QBX question.
Keywords: MCGA, QBX
Organization: oren
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 04:01:04 GMT


	I am (trying to) write a rather simple game in MCGA and QBX.  I
have MCGA figured all except for one thing.  You can change colors using
something like:

ColorCode = (65536 * Blue + 256 * Green + Red)
PALETTE ColorNumber, ColorCode

	I know that is not completly valid, but I use something that
works, what I want to know is: Is there some way you can find out the
colorcode that has already been assigned to a number?  Like I have
ColorNumber 12, what is the ColorCode that is assigned to it?  What are
the Blue, Green and Red values? 

Please respond by E-mail.  Thanks.
-- 
+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
|         John Wright          | You dented the entire right fender! |
| ajwright@sacam.oren.ortn.edu | Maybe they won't notice! (They did) |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: philco@microsoft.com (Phillip Cooper)
Subject: Re: VB and Linking to DLLs...
Date: 19 Nov 92 17:02:12 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation

In article <kenneth.722031336@ponder> kenneth@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Kenneth W. Rich) writes:
>
>I am about to go crazy.  A few months ago I was able to declare
>API fuctions and use them in Visual Basic.  Recently, however, I
>can't seem to get it to work.  The error I am getting when I try
>to call a defined function from API is "Bad DLL Calling Convention"
>It shows up during runtime when VB calls the external function.
>I have checked and double checked everything about four times
>and everything seems to be correct.
>
>
>Thanks for any insights provided.
>

The VB support group at (900)896-9876 should be be able to help
you out with this. 

Phil Cooper 
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson)
Subject: Re: Visual Basic info wanted
Reply-To: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 16:02:16 GMT

In article 4902@sctc.com, bright@sctc.com (David A. Bright) writes:
>I would like information on Visual Basic (the Windows variety).  Can anyone
>give me pointers to books, magazine articles, or ftp-able documents that
>describe VB?  Since version 2.0 is due out soon (available now?), I am
>especially interested in information pertaining to that version.  What am
>I looking for?  I would like to do some programming under Windows but am
>short on time (this is a spare time project and my spare time has dwindled
>to almost nothing).  From what I've heard so far, VB is supposed to handle
>a lot of the tedium for you.  For those of you bemoaning the constant BASIC
>bashing, I'll admit to programming in C at work; however, I am not averse to
>using "off-beat" languages (I've been known to dabble in ICON, Forth, and
>other lesser-known languages).
>

David, VB has been reviewed in a number of computer magazines this past year,
however just this last month, two major magazines reviewed the three top
selling Windows BASIC packages... VB, The Realizer, and GFA BASIC.  Check out
the Nov 92 issues of Computer Language and Byte.  Both reviewers tended to
give the nod to VB over the other two, due in large part to its ease of use
and complete, relatively seamless package.  No one has reviewed VB 2.0 yet
as it is not yet released (I think).  Interestingly, GFA BASIC is undoubtedly
the most powerful of the three and has the most complete command set (and
also the closest to the C syntax, BTW) but was panned due to it's lack of a
decent tutorial, inadequate documentation, and inconsistent editor.

Personally, I _prefer_ the GFA package but then again I come with several
years experience using GFA on the Atari platform so my learning curve was not
as steep.  I also like the ease of converting from GFA-DOS to GFA-Windows or
vice-versa and no need to spend more $$$ for a "Toolkit"... it's all there.

But VB is a slick package and all indications are that VB 2.0 will be a major
improvement (especially in performance) so that's what I'd most recommend.
---

___________________________ John "HUTCH" Hutchinson _________________________
_________________ Fair Dinkum Technologies     Member - IAAD  _______________
________________ "No worries, mate... it's from Fair Dinkum!" _______________
____________ email: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov   GEnie: FAIR-DINKUM _____________


Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: steven@syacus.acus.oz.au (Steven Malikoff)
Subject: First Impressions: VB for DOS
Organization: ACUS Australian Centre for Unisys Software, Sydney
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 23:09:16 GMT

Since people are asking about VB4D, and no-one's saying much about it:-

Well, I installed Visual Basic for DOS (standard edition) on my system
the other night. It took up about 4.3 meg of space. The IDE is not too
bad, without a huge deal of difference to QB4.5's IDE. There is a small
delay when switching to the Form Editor program. I compiled the example
programs such as a clock and calculator app as standalone exe files (you
can have a runtime module as well) and found that the EXE's are quite
large- about 160k for the clock. Luckily, these exe's seem to run ok
on a standard PC XT, which is a requirement for a financial app I have
written in QB 4.5. I'm a little worried about this, as my app is around
4000 lines and in QB4.5 produces a 121k exe, which easily fits on a 360k
disk. Hate to think what VB4D will make of it....
Overall, looks ok, but I'll reserve my judgement as to whether it's worth
the Oz$149 upgrade cost.

Steven Malikoff.
steven@syacus.acus.oz.au
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: kenneth@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Kenneth W. Rich)
Subject: VB and Linking to DLLs...
Organization: University of North Texas
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 20:15:36 GMT


I am about to go crazy.  A few months ago I was able to declare
API fuctions and use them in Visual Basic.  Recently, however, I
can't seem to get it to work.  The error I am getting when I try
to call a defined function from API is "Bad DLL Calling Convention"
It shows up during runtime when VB calls the external function.
I have checked and double checked everything about four times
and everything seems to be correct.


Thanks for any insights provided.


Ken.
From: millard@acsu.buffalo.edu (Peter G. Millard)
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
Subject: Re: First Impressions: VB for DOS
Date: 23 Nov 92 19:42:04 GMT
Organization: UB

Well, since people are expressing opinions about VB/DOS, I'll throw in my
$0.02 worth.

Firstly, I bought the professional edition upgrade for $199 which contains
the whole 9 yards. Overlay support, ISAM support, etc.. I am using a 
286-16 w/ a math chip & 2.5 Megs of RAM. 40 meg IDE harddrive.

I must admit I was pretty suprised when I installed the software onto my
system and found it needed ~11 Meg!! (my harddrive needed some house cleaning
anyways :).

I am in the midst of coverting several modules of a large appplication into
VB/DOS from QB4.5.  Each module was about 4000 lines in QB4.5 & I have about
4 or 5 modules. So far I have found VB extremely easy to use with excellent
on line help and _MUCH_ improved documentation over QB45. The folks at MS
finally ditched the idea of putting a users guide and a ref. manual in the
same package. This makes it much easier to find stuff regaurding syntax etc.
without having to wade through the entire users manual. 

As using VB is my first experience in using any type of object oriented 
programming, the basic idea took a little getting used to but again, the 
VB environment makes it simple for the novice to setup efficient event 
procedures for forms. Much of the "innerworkings" routines of my QB45 programs
(ie data handling, file procedures etc.) was directly copied into my new 
VB programs and are working with no problems.

Creating and editing forms is once again quite simple as the form editor
is also quite user friendly. Again, good online help is one keystroke away:).
It's so nice to be able to create a good looking user interface in a few
minutes instead of struggling using LOCATE & COLOR statements all over the 
place. 

I really appreciate the extra programs included with VB. These programs
contain dialog boxes which virtually every program uses and which can be
used in any other programs by either adding them to the .MAK file (like
you could ibn QB45) or by bunching several together and using them as a
library (like I did). Both methods work flawlessly and save writing code
for such things like an open file dialog box, a save file dialog box, a 
desktop setup dialog box, etc...

All in all, VB is exaclty what I was looking for. A good efficient object
oriented language which I didn't have to completely scrap my QB code, but
the user interface is 1000% better looking then it used to be.
 



-- 
******************************************************************************
	Peter G. Millard  *  INTERNET: v057n5um@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu           
 	SUNY @ Buffalo    *          : millard@acsu.buffalo.edu
*****************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: bdwheele@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Brian Wheeler)
Subject: Re: VAX Basic-like Basic for PC?
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 21:04:03 GMT

	Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System 7.1 includes all that.
But, like every other DOS programs, there are limits to memory :(  But, 
they aren't too bad.

	Brian Wheeler

-- 
******************************************************************************
* Brian 'Nautical' Wheeler - These are my opinions, do you hear me?  MINE!
* "Wombats are our friends" - Me
******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic
From: bdwheele@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Brian Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Floating point number in BDIRasic & C
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 14:37:14 GMT

In <1992Nov19.102706.90644@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au> ecn215z@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au writes:


>Does Basic use the same physical format as C when a 
>Single(float) or Double(double) number is stored onto a file?

>Thanks for any info.

>C.L. Chang

I think the newer Microsoft BASIC's use the IEEE floating point format.  I'm
not sure about C, however.

-- 
******************************************************************************
* Brian 'Nautical' Wheeler - These are my opinions, do you hear me?  MINE!
* "Wombats are our friends" - Me
******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.lang.basic