Re: BBC and DEFINT etc [Was: Using GOTO]

On Sep 9, 1:14 pm, "Judson McClendon" <ju...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Who makes the decisions about BB4W today? Could you, for example,
> decide to implement the DEFxxx feature, or other constructs, yourself?

That's a really difficult question.  There is no formal process for
agreeing changes to BBC BASIC; the only body who could possibly
perform such a task is the BBC themselves, and there's nobody left
there who knows or cares enough about BBC BASIC to do it (before
retiring from the Cor****ation it would probably have been me, but that
might have been considered unfair!).

So in practice I make changes to BBC BASIC for Windows without
consulting anybody except my own conscience.  Having been involved
from the start, and knowing the philosophy behind the decisions taken
then, I do feel able to make changes within the 'spirit' of BBC
BASIC.  As a rule I don't do anything that will break compatibility
with the older versions (apart from unavoidable issues such as
variable names cla****ng with new keywords).

Isn't DEFxxx something of an anachronism anyway?  Determining a
variable's type from its initial letter seems an awfully old-fa****oned
concept.  It could create havoc with Windows constants, for example!
How does it fit in with modular programming?  Presumably a library
module can't take any notice of a DEFxxx in the main program because
that could change a variable to a different type from that which the
writer of the library intended!

I think, on balance, BBC BASIC is better without it!

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/
To reply by email change 'news' to my forename.