--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEU00028 Date: 10/23/95 From: GREG SHULTZ Time: 09:08am \/To: BRIAN MCLAUGHLIN (Read 4 times) Subj: What's Wrong with This? BM> Glad to be of help. BTW, if you are using PB3x for your DOS BM> programming, take a look at PBFILES (freebie) and MAXLIB (Shareware). BM> I wrote'em, and I'm sure you'll like 'em. I'm going to download these. Thanks for the tip. BM> Or, they are in the PB Forum Library on CIS, as PBFILE.ZIP and BM> MAX12A.ZIP (to allow for the 6.3 limitations on CIS). I think CIS no longer has a 6.3 limitation in most of its forums. I'd like to know why they ever had it in the first place. Trivia, anyone? Greg --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: PC Resource Software (1:363/145) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEU00029 Date: 10/23/95 From: JAMSHID KHOSHRANGI Time: 08:02am \/To: ZACK JONES (Read 4 times) Subj: Your Promotion Hi Zack! 20-Oct-95 14:37:00, Zack Jones wrote to Brian Mclaughlin Subject: What's Wrong with This? >> Or, they are in the PB Forum Library on CIS, as PBFILE.ZIP and >> MAX12A.ZIP (to allow for the 6.3 limitations on CIS). ZJ> I'll grab 'em from CI$ the next time I call in there. ZJ> Take Care, Zack Jones ZJ> zack@hom.net Congratulations on your promotion to co-moderator of our humble echo. I think you'll find that there is less trafic here, but that the trafic you do get is somewhat more meaningful than the trafic in QUIK_BAS, since we're not talking about a dead language here. I thought I'd bring you up to speed as to what I've been up to in PowerBASIC. I've been working for over a year on the Fermat project. If you remember from the QUIK_BAS days, Fermat is the name Calvin French gave to the theoretical object oriented BASIC I discussed in an echo-article called "OOB, Posibility or Pipedream?" The first step to writing an OOB to structured BASIC preprocessor was to design a pattern matching language that is robust enough to parse source code for syntax. I meant to write a grep-like pattern matcher when I started out, possibily a BASIC lex or yacc, but it went much further than that and I ended up writing a complete language within a language called LPM (Laleh's Pattern Matcher). LPM is now at inhouse version 4.0 and is about 50 times more powerful than I had planned it to be, but in computing there is no such thing as too fast, too robust, or too expressive. The first two versions of LPM were written in VBDOS. When I ported over to PowerBASIC, I ended up adding some features to LPM that I hadn't even considered under VBDOS for performance reasons. The next step of the Fermat project will be to use the LPM tool to write the preprocessor itself. I wrote a prototype preprocessor back in February that did the job, but demanded absolute syntactical adherence or it would crash. There's no use having an OOL if you can't make a mistake without choking the system. LPM is more robust than a hardcoded translator. The $60,000 process of developing a language within a language has given me a look into PowerBASIC, let me tell you! It has also produced some useful code that I will soon be releasing as a commercial PB library called "MondoLib for PB." MondoLib will NOT be a huge Hanlin-like collection of routines. Instead, it will be about 20 HLL powerhorses, some which I've already released into the public domain, others like LPM Lite and JAMPLAY, which plays PLAY statements over an AdLib. The library also has a fast ARRAY_SCAN replacement, a math expression parser, a full ANSI emulator, and an INSTR replacement that scans up to 5 times faster than INSTR under certain conditions. It will also have mouse routines and EMS routines. In short, anything I've had to develop for Fermat will be in the library. In some cases, I've had to strip out some of the more powerful features, such as only having LPM Lite rather than the full language. I've also been considering writing a book on advanced PB programming, but I don't know how big a base there is with PB, so I don't know that that would be profitable. Now, how about you? What have YOU been up to? Do you still work for the TELIX people? Khodafez, Jamshid Khoshrangi ___ Terminate 3.00/Pro * TerMail/QWK * AhuraMazda(tm) Software [ams@stage.lionsgate.com] --- Maximus/2 2.01wb * Origin: Sound Stage BBS - Live Via Satellite - (604)944-6476 (1:153/7070) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEU00030 Date: 10/23/95 From: DAVID ROPER Time: 09:35pm \/To: BRIAN MCLAUGHLIN (Read 4 times) Subj: OPEN MORE THAN 15 FILES BM>Here is some PowerBASIC 3.x code to let your program open more than >15 files at once, and all the information you need to understand and >use that code. BM>'------------------------- START CODE ---------------------------- ----much stuff deleted for saving phone bills----- >'---------------------------- END CODE ----------------------------- Thanks very much for two things: the explanation of what's happening and then the wonderful code to cure the "ill". I always wondered why Clipper code needed an environment VAR set, it must be reading the Var and doing "your" code. I'm all "PowerBasic 3.2" however. _____oOOo_/00\_oOOo_____ \__/ David.Roper@MMS.Raleigh.NC.US --- FLAME v1.1 * Origin: Full Internet Access $15.00, no limits! (919) 779-6674 or (1:151/102) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEU00031 Date: 10/25/95 From: BOB DUNNELL Time: 01:50am \/To: GARY PRICE (Read 4 times) Subj: Hashing GP> I hope someone out there can help.. I looked everywhere in my GP> PowerBasic v3.2 manuals and cannot seem to find anything on this GP> "Hashing"... I hope this does not mean PowerBasic is limited when it GP> comes to this... :( GP> Thanks in Advance! Hashing is a programming technique. Speeds up searches, etc. Basically, you make a file bigger than it needs to be, and then you put data into it based on a certain formula. If something's where the data you're adding "belongs," you put it in the next available slot. This speeds up most searches because the program can decide where to start looking for a data item. As far as I know, no language specifically supports it. It's like recursive programming; it's a technique with no real specific implementation. ... rtfm (314) 843-1855 *** Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 --- TriToss (tm) Professional 1.0 - #122 * Origin: Fido has been naughty again. Naughty Fido. (1:100/340.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEV00000 Date: 10/22/95 From: BOB SEWELL Time: 09:19pm \/To: ZACK JONES (Read 4 times) Subj: What's Wrong with This? Thus did Zack Jones eruct in All's general direction: ZJ> dim OneLine as string ZJ> dim FileHandle1 as Integer ZJ> FileHandle1 = FreeFile ZJ> Open "FD.LOG" for input as FileHandle1 ZJ> While not(EOF(FileHandle1)) ZJ> Line Input FileHandle1, OneLine ZJ> 'Line Input #1, OneLine ZJ> Wend ZJ> What's wrong with the code I'm attempting to use? Good to see you again, Zack! Put a "#" (pound sign) in front of the FileHandle1 variable in the line giving you the trouble. The LINE INPUT statement is one of those file handling statements that rrequires it, unike the OPEN or CLOSE statements. Therefore your line should read: Line Input #FileHandler1, OneLine Hope I helped, but I'll bet you've figured it out yourself already. Been using Pascal, have you? If my boss will approve it, I'm going back to school in January to get my Computer Science degree, so I'll be doing C. Someone really needs to get these universities into the '90s and have 'em teach PowerBASIC, VB/Win, Delphi and PowerBuilder, eh? ;-) ... And smale foweles maken melodye that slepen al the nyght with open eye. --- PPoint 1.86 * Origin: Seven Wells On-Line * Nashville, TN (1:116/3000.12) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEV00001 Date: 10/22/95 From: BOB SEWELL Time: 09:27pm \/To: JAMES GOLDBLOOM (Read 4 times) Subj: EGA in Desqview & OS/2 Thus did James Goldbloom eruct in Bob Sewell's general direction: BS>> I've got some beta testers running a door of mine, some BS>>under DOS with Desqview, others under OS/2 Warp. This door BS>>program can be configured so that the screen on the local BBS BS>>side will display JG> I can attest that PB compiled programs work fine under DV, DOS, JG> and OS/2 as I use to run the first for many years, the second is JG> the platform for the first anyway, and the last is my current JG> platform working fine for the end user. JG> This includes Warp 3.0. JG> No troubles, here. Did (or do) any of them use screen mode 9 (EGA graphics)? If so, did you have to fiddle with the DOS mode configuration elements in OS/2 Warp to make them run? ... Is fearr fear a chiniud. --- PPoint 1.86 * Origin: Seven Wells On-Line * Nashville, TN (1:116/3000.12) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEV00002 Date: 10/25/95 From: ZACK JONES Time: 07:43am \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: Ugh! Howdy! Thanks to all of you who replied to my messages about speeding up my program. I had different replies for you guys, but two of my outbound mail packets were accidentally deleted and I can't recover them %^(. Take Care, Zack Jones zack@hom.net --- InterEcho 1.12 * Origin: Zack's Shack (912) 923-0642 (1:3611/18) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 214 POWER BASIC Ref: CEV00003 Date: 10/20/95 From: DANIEL STASINSKI Time: 09:38am \/To: MARTIN SMIT (Read 4 times) Subj: Graphic Library -> Does anybody know, if there is a graphic library for PB 3.x, which -> supports PCX, GIF, BMP, TGA, JPG, etc..? I believe the Genus library will handle a couple of these. -> Is there a directory sort routine for PB (assembler or something..)? Do you just want to sort in memory, or sort and write the directory back to the disk? Daniel at DSE --- DSE Online! The Home of PB/VISION(tm) PRO for PowerBASIC 3.x --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.10 * Origin: DSE Software Publishing BBS 707-459-4484 (1:125/123.0)