RE: Edita Wish list - was: Searching Docs - was: the Dollar Sign [$]
Mebbe QBasic spoiled me, and since I'm new to Euphoria {I still haven't
figured out the subroutine call thingy, yet}, mebbe my opinion doesn't
matter. That said, I'm going to spew my ignorance, forth anyway.
If one downloads the file QBasic.Exe and it's companion file, QBasic.Hlp,
one quickly discovers that in this one file we have several different things
which with most programming languages are seperate programs. We see a Run
menu in the top of the program editor window. This means not only can
QBasic.Exe edit QBasic programs, but it can Run them, as well. Granted,
it's an interpreter, and it's also granted that it is slower then Euphoria.
But perhaps we can consolidate the Ed and Ex programs so there's only one
Editor/Interpreter file, instead of two? And while you're at it {and this
is why I mention it}, we select the Help {Yes! Help!} menu in QBasic.Exe.
Now if you have the QBasic.Hlp file in the same directory as QBasic.Exe, and
assuming you started QBasic.Exe in it's home folder, it should open the Help
File for you. Irregardless, the menu has an Index, Contents, information on
Using Help and About options. Contents tells you all about Help: What kind
of Help is available and what you can expect of Help {providing QBasic.Hlp
is present}. But my favorite is Help/Index, which brings up a list of all
the native QBasic Commands, Statements, and Functions. From here, you can
learn how to use QBasic without having a seperate manual. I know, because I
did. Since it's in the Editor, I don't have to have two windows open next
to each other, nor do I have to bounce back and forth between windows while
I'm trying to figure out a command. Also, in QB4.5 {the full compiler}, you
have examples and all kinds of nifty things in Help. In QB4.5, it's got a
regular tutorial for each statement, command, keyword, etcetera, that
explains what it is and how it's used and demonstrates it forward, backward,
up and down. Of course, QB4.5 was the Commercial Version. QBasic.Exe is
the free version that anyone should be able to download, as it is a DOS
application.
One final thing about the QBasic.Exe file was that not only did it integrate
Editing, Interpreting, and Help, but, get this, it also PARSED your
programs! No include option was available to QBasic.Exe, and QB4.5 did not
load and parse Included files automatically, although it could. I think Ed
should do the same thing, only also load and parse all included files,
perhaps with a line "Include:[FileName]:[SubName|" at the top when you're
looking at included stuff. Perhaps, even better, we could include only
specified subs from an Include File, using a format "Include:
[FileName]:[SubName]," so we don't have to include and load a whole set of
subs if we need only one. I've always thought Include was nice, but I also
believe that if you have more than one Subroutine in an include file, and
you only needed to use just one of the Subroutines, it was rather pointless
to load the whole file just for one subroutine. And, if it was a Subroutine
that was used only once, then it was a total waste of memory to load the
whole thing.
I guess, what I'm trying to say is, I think Include is a nice way for a
coder to use one language to create an entirely different one. I almost
never use QBasic commands in my QBasic files. Instead, I use the commands
only to create Subroutines, and then I write a program by calling various
subroutines at various times. My standard program format is:
>DECLARE SUB [...] [Repeat as needed]
>
>DIM SHARED [Variable][(From TO To)] AS [Type] [Rarely used, but a few
>programs need them, and Euphoria would be nice without the "AS [Type]"
>Function.]
>
>Initialize
>MasterControlProgram
>EndProgram
And that's it. QBasic makes my programs pretty quick and easy to write,
makes them very easy to read, and parsing means you don't end up with a
screen cluttered with all kinds of code from dozens of other subroutines on
your computer screen. Call me a spoiled, inexperienced programmer, but I
think Euphoria should have features like this. Or perhaps, since I'm not
coming from C {a language I shy away from because compared to QBasic, it's
absolutely wonkers} I can't follow the Euphoric language very well, since
it's clearly a C oriented program.
I will look in to the links I've been sent. I'm curious about some of the
programs I've seen. I've seen QB>[Insert Language Here] translaters that
understood only the most BASIC of commands, and flopped on the more advanced
ones or disagreed with the way I put programs together. Even so, if there
are such translaters, then mebbe I can use those to learn how Euphoria
handles QBasic functions, and thus begin building a Euphoric library that
would more closely resemble my QBasic code base. {Grins} That would be
great fun, and I really need to learn Euphoria because VB looks a lot like C
and is untranslatable gibberish to the diehard QB programmer {like me} and I
really want to write programs that will run in Windows natively. {Winks}
Love & Friendship & Blessed Be!
Lynn Erika Kilroy
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