Bliss update
- Posted by kbochert at ix.netcom.com Aug 01, 2002
- 459 views
-------Phoenix-Boundary-07081998- BLISS UPDATE I have just released the latest version of Bliss to the archives. It has (hopefully) reached maturity -- the only planned addition is making runtime errors into exceptions. It has been renamed 'Bach' because 'Bliss' was already taken. I liked Bliss. I was about to decide that a second Bliss was acceptable when I checked to see if any other language name was multiply used. Sure enough, I found one -- Bliss is used twice! Bach refers not to the composer, but to the Welsh word for little, or 'little one'. The 'ch' is pronounced as in the Scottish 'loch'. Changes: 1) Mersenne random # generator. drand() returns 0 <=3D N <=3D 1.0 irand(l, h) returns l <=3D N <=3D h I thought it produced a more random sequence, but who knows=3F It is nearly twice as fast. EU:1440 MER_FLT:3200 MER_INT:2430 2) insert(seq, object, index) inserts an object into a list <for maintaining sorted lists> 3) exchange (seq, index1, index2) exchange items in a sequence This was added to speed sorts, and extraction from a sequence. The database bechmark goes from EU:600 to Bach:800 4) Instance initialization with new(). If a class has a method called new(), it may be called when creating an instance: Point p(2,3) 5) Overriding. A class may have members which are named the same as a member of a parent. 6) Parent access. The '..' operator may be used to access a member of a parent. 7) Member constants are allowed. 8) Bach no longer searches the subdirectories of the home 'include' directory. (Subdirectories of EUDIR\include are still searched. 9) The sprintf() function now understands '%c' for printing characters. 10) The '=3F=3F' operator acts just like '=3F' except it pauses after output. 11) '$' and '_' are alphabetic characters. 12) A formal parameter whose name begins with '$' will not draw a warning message if it is not referenced. Karl Bochert -------Phoenix-Boundary-07081998---