Boolean Statements

[Charles Pegge]

As I recall, the Bible compresses to about 1 meg, so the BASIC specifications, at 50 megs, must be truly vast and comprehensive  

I think I've cracked the multi-let

Because LET is also used for creating objects, potentially involving memory allocation, the only safe way is for the compiler to split it down into separate LET statements for individual processing.

let dracula, frankenstein=monster()
--->
let dracula=monster()
let frankenstein=monster()

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Have a look at Nimrod is you want to see a language built from the best syntax of many different language concepts.

Tastes differ. For me, there's nothing compares to ANSI C - laconic, expressive, crisp.

You have one indisputable advantage over me, John, which is your being a native American (~English, more or less) speaker. I can't compete with you in flattering anybody without a dictionary in hand and a deep breath beforehand. But that one can hardly pass for flattering. You risk ending up in the esoteric trashbin if you don't signal unambiguously what lear you really are. IMHO

[JRS]

Okay.

ScriptBasic is a ANSI C thread safe scripting language API that uses BASIC for it's syntax.

SCRIBA & SBHTTPD were just examples how to use the SB API. They took on life's of their own. SB can be anything you want to morph it into.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Charles,

Here's the link to SBS.7z as promised. It contains two .PDF's that's why it's so huge and resistant to brute-force compression.

The link will be valid for 7 days only but it won't require registering with the site.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

John,

"You" in my sentence has had a somewhat broader sense encompassing both you personally and Charles. I just thought "you two" or "the two of you" would sound somewhat crude so I've restricted myself to this generalized pronoun.

Yet my assertion stays. FBSL was designed to inter-operate with 3rd-party libraries in the most efficient way imaginable under Windows. Its .DLL version can be wrapped up into any ActiveX control you like to mimic the wildest syntaxes or semantics. Yet it will always stay essentially distinct, predictable and expectable BASIC, C, and Asm to those who prefer to use it in its core, aborigenal form - again, I'm too lazy to look up a better English connotation.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

Charles,

Set is a de-facto standard to denote allocation of objects in modern BASIC dialects. Maybe it is not yet too late to roll O₂ back to comply with it and make room for its own multi-Let? Is Oxygen really that burdened by backwards compatibility issues?

[JRS]

I just finished a project where SB is embedded in firmware (a commercial product) on a POSIX based controller that takes serial data from 3 solar power inverters and converts it to values on a BMC BACNet network. Charles pulled off a miracle and wrote a MD5 routine in SB to unlock the power inverters so we could communicate with them.

The ScriptBasic SDL extension module is opening a new chapter in SB's ability to stay relevant.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

I can only wish you good luck with projects like this and I am happy you have found each other for mutual support. Being a homo sentient as I am, I'm stepping out of your way.

Naturally, no personal insults implied. It's just my humble non-British origin that keeps on telling again.

[Charles Pegge]

Thanks for the ECMA specs, Mike. I have just downloaded them. I see they are entirely in image form, unfortunately I am unable to interrogate the pixels, or do text-to-speech, so I will have to study them with my magnifying glass

I have never been a VB user, but I presume the use of SET for objects originated there. I based Oxygen's Object model on C++ and discarded as much noisy syntax as was practicable. Class is very closely related to Type in O2, and it may well be possible to merge the two concepts.

I like the idea of finding extended meanings for old concepts and keywords. set and get remain available for user definition, though normally one would expect them to be used for indirectly accessing an object's properties. Let is similar to Dim but also allow one variable or object to be cloned from another, or created from a class factory. But this is still experimental.

[JRS]

I like the idea of finding extended meanings for old concepts and keywords.

Then you should have a blast with the BBC BASIC graphics syntax I added to SB in the SDL extension module.

[Charles Pegge]

BBC Basic was my first programming experience. My inspiration for removing unnecessary brackets. BBC basic even had an inline assembler for the 6502 cpu.

[Mike Lobanovsky]

unfortunately I am unable to interrogate the pixels, or do text-to-speech, so I will have to study them with my magnifying glass

Oh. What a misfortune... I could've helped but my OCR is Russian only and these are the only copies I have. Should I google for potential (though unlikely) alternatives for you?

I presume the use of SET for objects originated there.

That's correct.

I like the idea of finding extended meanings for old concepts and keywords.

I assure you, these "machine" words are but mere labels for myriads of PC-aware human beings. They are devoid of any particular human meaning because 25 per cent of programmers are not native to English and the other 75 per cent coders do not know any human language at all including their own mother tongue.

set and get remain available for user definition, though normally one would expect them to be used for indirectly accessing an object's properties.

Not exactly. Modern BASIC would reserve Set for accessing properties that accept instantiated objects only, Let for those that accept all other, simpler data types, and Get for the returns of the both.

Let is similar to Dim but also allow one variable or object to be cloned from another, or created from a class factory. But this is still experimental.

That seems logical. Looking forward to final results.

Kind regards,

[Mike Lobanovsky]

I've just checked out the Holy Bible. It compresses to 1.06MB with uber-Zip, and to just under 868KB, with 7zip.

That's an update FYI.

[Charles Pegge]

That is a remarkable level of compression: about 1 byte per word of text! 

[Emil_halim]

Hi Charles.

I see that Oxybasic will catch c sooner.

very nice approach.