OpenEuphoria

Re: WISH LIST

• Posted by David Cuny <HW1.DCUNY at HW1.CAHWNET.GOV> Dec 23, 1996
• 677 views

i was just working up a list of requests for robert, but i'll post it
here instead. this is my /first/ contact with the list, so i apologize
if this stuff has been hashed in prior threads:

1. /real/ relational operations at a high level. conceptually, i
   understand the difference between "=" and "compare". i suspect that
   limiting the operators to numbers makes the math much faster, yada
   yada yada. i don't care; i don't want to think about it. that's what
   "high level" programming is all about. i don't even deal with it any
   more, as i've coded an "eq" and "neq" function, but i'd like it even
   better if this were a native call.

2. an IDE like all the other DOS languages i've got. i can live without
   pull-down menus, but i've been trained to use "Alt-F" for file, and
   so on. i don't even use the Euphoria IDE any more, I just launch two
   DOS sessions and Alt-Tab between the command line and the DOS editor.
   editors are the stuff that flame wars are made of, so i'll just
   mention the /features/ that i really miss:

   a. context-sensitive help menus. press the "F1" key, and up pops
   help on the keyword. sure, i could code it myself into the
   euphoria editor, but that's not the point. anyway, waiting while my
   poor machine grinds away reloading the /entire/ manual each time
   i want help is /painful/.

   b. a pop-up of all the functions defined in my program. press the
   'F2' in QBASIC, and all the Subroutines and Functions are displayed
   on a list. no, the "Find" feature is not the same at all; when i'm
   doing that late-night coding, there are times i don't remember the
   name of my own functions.

3. no CASE statement. the BASIC flavor, not C's. i can live without
   this, but i still miss it.

4. forward references. again, i conceptually understand /why/ there are
   no forward references to functions in Euphoria: it's got a one-pass
   parser. on the other hand, it makes is a real pain to code certain
   types of things. without getting into the gory details, i'd gladly
   give up my ability to overload a function in order to call a function
   i haven't defined yet.

5. faster video screen fetches and stores.

6. i second the motion on assembler calls. i had to give up a small
   project a year ago working with my sound card because the primitives
   were not included in the language.

7. smart "include". calling a built-in function should automatically
   include it in the header. even better, have a function scan the
   INCLUDE directory and automatically build the list of include files
   and functions, so i can add my own functions into the library, and
   automatically have them link the right modules in. naturally, this
   scanning is only done when the user requests it.

8. auto-completion. either make it optional, or give some easy way to
   move past the words added by the editor. see the ABC language for
   an example of a completely integrated auto-complete function. i've
   sort of gotten used to it, but one of the autors noted that it was
   the single most-hated universally hated feature of the language.

enough for now. happy holidays.

-- David Cuny