Re: copying BIOS to a file

"Auric__" <not.my.real@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Judson McClendon wrote:
>> "Auric__" <not.my.real@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>
>>> I prefer PowerBasic myself. The Windows versions default to signed
>>> LONG (DOS version defaults to INTEGER, 16 bits) and include both
>>> signed and unsigned integers. (PowerBasic's WORD is unsigned;
>>> 16-bit signed int is INTEGER.)
>>
>> I like PowerBASIC myself. But there is no signed 8 bit type,
>
> The only BASIC that I can recall seeing a signed byte in is XBasic, but
> I could be remembering wrong. I've never had a use for signed bytes,
> though.
>
> FreeBASIC is interesting in that it sort of does what I mentioned
> earlier: on 32-bit platforms (Win32 and Linux, presumably also FreeBSD)
> its INTEGER type is 32 bits, but under DOS it's 16 bits. (I don't
> remember what the default data type is, but I *think* it's INTEGER.)
>
>> or
>> unsigned 64 bit type. Not that big a deal, but both would have been
>> useful to me.
>
> Yeah, I've had a couple of situations where a ulonglong (or whatever)
> would've been handy. In PB, I usually fake it with a CURRENCYX (64-bit
> fixed-point); for other BASICs, it depends on what data types they
> offer.

My main point of contention with PowerBASIC here is that compiler
vendors should not be in the business of saying "I don't think anyone
will need xyz" (e.g. signed byte, unsigned 64 bit), that is sup****ted by
the CPU, because the whole point of a compiler is that you are going
to use it to create applications that didn't exist until you create them.
Compilers are enablers, not limiters. By definition, the creation of new
things is not a process that should be stifled a priori. And compilers
should be orthogonal as much as possible. It doesn't make sense to
sup****t 8, 16, 32 and 64 bit numeric variables, but only some of them
can be both signed and unsigned. It's arbitrarily crippled thinking, and
it also violates the design Law of Least Astonishment. In other words,
it is a design flaw to have omitted them.
-- 
Judson McClendon       judmc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems     http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
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