1. v2.1 Features Review
Rob,
If v2.1 had a theme, it would be common sense. Great features.
I feel I owe it to you to make specific comments about some of the new
features in 2.1.
> * The Single-Platform (DOS32-only) package, formerly $32,
> has been discontinued.
Common sense. This is a recognition that people are attempting to develo=
p
WIN32 programs, now.
> * The Dual-Platform (DOS32+WIN32) package, formerly $53
> has been reduced to $39 U.S., effective immediately.
Who wouldn't like this one? As a public domain user who looks to registe=
r
in the future, I really appreciate it.
> * The printed manual has been discontinued. Instead, there is no=
w
> an official HTML version of the manual, included with the
> Public Domain .ZIP file.
Smart business decision. I got boxes and boxes of print manuals in boxes=
in my room, yet Euphoria's docs are on disk! And no "desktop publishing"=
cost for RDS either!
> * All useful 3rd-party include files, such as Win32Lib.ew and
>many
> others, will be "stamped" by RDS with a code number that makes=
> them free, just like the files in euphoria\include. They will
>not
> add to your statement count, provided you do not significantly=
> modify them. This will also allow 3rd-party developers
> to get better diagnostic information from their users.
Uh, hmmm. Great plan. So will authors send like an e-mail to you and yo=
u
decide to stamp or not stamp the file? I assume not all these will be in=
the package. They should probably be in one section of the website, I
respectively submit.
> * Binding, shrouding and profiling will now be part of the
> Complete Edition only. These are features that beginners
> do not require, but serious users might find valuable.
After opening up so many, well, "freebees", I guess we owe you this one. =
I
can't see I use profiling. BUT I'VE USED BINDING TO GIVE PROGS TO OTHERS=
! =
I've also used some shrouding, a little. My biggest qualm is lack of
binding. But I should register, right? Again, this is totally cool; lik=
e
I said, we owe you one of these.
>* Short-form assignment operators +=3D -=3D *=3D /=3D &=3D have been add=
ed.
I like this; it'll make code shorter and more readable. Have you
considered Ralf's suggestion about seq[index..] to mean index subscript
from index to length seq? That will make code a lot more readable too.
>* Euphoria now uses "short-circuit" evaluation of "and" and "or"
> expressions in if/elsif/while conditions. e.g. in an "and" condition:=
Again, common (human) sense. Nice going.
> profile() - turns profiling on/off so you can focus your profil=
e
for registered users, right?
> equal() - compare any 2 Euphoria objects for equality.
> equivalent to: compare(a,b) =3D 0 but more readabl=
e
Again, the theme common sense comes to mind.
> sprint() - returns the string representation of any Euphoria
> object
How is this different from the current sprintf?
> arcsin() - inverse trig function
> arccos() - inverse trig function
Good. Ralf and I are having this discussion about which routines should =
be
included into Euphoria. Such routines which would be "hard" for users to=
code should. This qualifies. What about exp()?
> get_bytes() - returns the next n bytes from a file
This is helpful, to read in an entire file.
> prompt_number() - prompts the user to enter a number
> prompt_string() - prompts the user to enter a string
Oh, I have mixed feelings. I'll look at docs, but isn't this violating t=
he
purist "atom and sequences"?
> the constant PI - 3.14159... was added to misc.e
There is a prog to calculate this, but again, this is one of those things=
where its "difficult" for the end user to do precisely.
>* The main Euphoria documentation can now be viewed locally with a Web
> browser. The plain-text files REFMAN.DOC and LIBRARY.DOC are still
the way to go
>* Language War has had a major face-lift. It now runs in pixel-graphics
Excellent. I'm looking forward to downloading the alpha release. =
Stressing that we know its an ALPHA RELEASE. Let the testing begin!
Alan
=
2. Re: v2.1 Features Review
- Posted by Robert Craig <rds at EMAIL.MSN.COM>
Jan 16, 1999
-
Last edited Jan 17, 1999
Alan Tu writes (regarding file-stamping in 2.1):
> Uh, hmmm. Great plan. So will authors send like an e-mail
> to you and you decide to stamp or not stamp the file? I
> assume not all these will be in the package. They should
> probably be in one section of the website, I respectively submit.
We're willing to "stamp" just about any include file that
will be useful to more than just the author of the include.
We'll start doing it soon. It will cause an (easily-corrected)
error when you use a stamped file under v2.0 or earlier,
so we'll allow a few more days for people to download 2.1 alpha.
You can correct the error by simply deleting the "stamp"
statement which appears on the last line of the
file as (for example):
with 973857463
We want people to be able to write 300 of *their own* statements
before being affected by the diagnostic limit. A good example
is Win32Lib. We want people to be able to learn how to write
Windows programs using Win32Lib without being hassled by
the diagnostic limit. Win32Lib is thousands of lines long.
We don't want to charge you with all those statements before
you've written any code of your own.
* * *
I'd also like to remind anyone who registered or upgraded
to Single or Dual-Platform, on or after July 15, 1998
that you are eligible for a *free* upgrade to 2.1. You can
wait for the 2.1 official release, or you can download
the Complete Edition for 2.1 alpha now, and download
the beta and official later. Just e-mail me your name and
address (for confirmation) and I'll give you the instructions.
We're giving the Single-Platform people a free upgrade,
because we promised 6 months of free upgrades, but
now we've discontinued Single-Platform. We also intended
6 months of free upgrades to *official* releases, but it
wasn't clear in register.doc, so we're setting the cutoff date
to 6 months before the alpha. If you get the alpha free
you'll also get the beta and official free. We want to keep
everyone happy 
I expect that the alpha-test period will last about
one month, followed by one month of beta-testing,
followed by the official release in March.
Regards,
Rob Craig
Rapid Deployment Software
http://members.aol.com/FilesEu/
