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- Forum - iziBasic
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Topic # 1584 |
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10/10/2007 @ 22:00 by Nate Weil
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as you probably already know if you check the forum because of my last topic, I am a new izibasic user. But I have ideas already for an update, so please bear with me
I am an averagely diverse developer, I've tried a little C, I've fooled around with different languages, but mainly variations of BASIC. izibasic with vizibasic, is, without a doubt, the most powerful BASIC I have used to date on the palm. No other BASIC allows GUI, which is a great thing in izi's favor. But now that you have the greatest palm-based BASIC compiler and GUI editor, I think you need to think about ease of use. In my searches for a great language/comiler for palm, other than izibasic, SmallBASIC is the best BASIC compiler etc.. It's easy to understand, the commands are simple and elegant, and even though the forum doesn't get much activity and it all looks a little outdated SmallBASIC is up to date with the latest palm OS's and it works great. It has a built in editor, and while it can't produce stand alone apps, it can make scripts. So anyways, enough of digressing. I think you should go for a huge change in izibasic, or perhaps make a second edition so ppl don't have to change if they don't want. Make one that is as easy as SmallBASIC, but still allows GUI and everything you can do with izi. I'm sure if you try SmallBASIC you will agree it is extremely simple. Just search for it on google and you will find the homepage. Thanks for your time! |
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Answer n° 1 -------- 10/10/2007 @ 23:48 by Tuka
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hello,
I like iziBasic. Because iziBasic is BASIC compiler. I do not know the BASIC compiler for PalmOS besides iziBasic. (Possibly LaFac may be a compiler.) I think SmallBASIC to be an interpreter. I like iziBasic compiling one's application in the form that I can carry out alone. Of course iziBasic is not perfect.
1. The argument of the order is fixed. I cannot write an expression to a parameter. I write the fixed number or a variable. I felt it in inconvenience at the start, but am not interested now. Because one statement becomes simple, this is advantageous in that a source code is easy to come to look. Of course it will be convenient if I interpret it flexibly because various descriptions are possible.
2. Cannot operate the data of the application of the normal deployment. (A statement to read the data of the schedule in HotPaw Basic seems to be supported.) I may operate ToDo and the data of the memo if I watch a sample. I cannot operate an address and the schedule by a statement of BASIC only. The reason may be because it considers that aldweb follows data from destruction.
There is not a limit if I use PP applet. I feel that it is difficult because this is not BASIC. However, possibility opens till aldweb supports a new statement because I can expand the function by oneself. iziBasic will upgrade it from now on. I show an idea and intend to request it. |
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Answer n° 2 -------- 11/10/2007 @ 02:58 by JoeV
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Hello Nate,
There is no perfect language, as I'm sure you are aware. And to make matter worse, all versions of Basic have their differences, which can be aggravating. Like you, I was attracted to IziBasic because it handled all the GUI interfacing for me. However, IMO there are 2 reasons that make it more powerful than other Palm Basic. (1) The ability to create stand alone apps. And, perhaps most important, (2) the ability to access all the Palm API calls with PP applets. Anything the Palm is capable of doing, you can do with IziBasic and PP. Many apps will not require API calls but they are there if you need them. For me, time spent learning IziBasic (and PP) was time well spent.
Tuka, you are right. IziBasic needs a syntax editor. But there are ways around it. I always reserve variables A,B,C, and D for that.
I just thought of a third reason I use IziBasic. Every time I've had a problem or a question it has been answered by Aldweb or this forum.
Just my 2 cents worth. Regards.
JoeV
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Answer n° 3 -------- 11/10/2007 @ 13:35 by Tuka
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Hello JoeV,
I have the same thought, too. Aldweb reacts to E-mail and either of the forum by all means. I thank for utmost support very much.
Your message is plain,because it is arranged very much. You listed good points of iziBasic well. Thank you.
Tuka |
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Answer n° 4 -------- 11/10/2007 @ 19:41 by Nate Weil
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I appreciate your replies :) I think I didn't do a very good job explaining though, so please let me try again in a simpler way. As I said in so many words, izibasic is great. What I think izi could profit from, is making the commands and ways you use variables and stuff like that as simple as SmallBASIC, and a built-in editor would be nice too. In smallBASIC, I didn't even need to read the help to get started, because it was nice and simple and sensible, which is a biggie for me. Just now, I thought of another thing too :) vizi and izi should include GUI commands or whatever you call it for menu setup, instead of having to go through the resource editor stuff that I'm struggling to even understand :( Hope that's clearer :) |
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Answer n° 5 -------- 12/10/2007 @ 23:19 by Tuka
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Hello Nate Weil,
I think that iziBasic is great.
1. About a built-in editor. Because SmallBASIC is an interpreter, an editor is Maine. If there are not an editor part and a practice part at the same time, the performance of the interpreter declines. Because iziBasic is a compiler, I do not have any problem even if a practice part parts from an editor part. There is an editor called PIAF for iziBasic. This has the compilation button. You can choose a favorite editor. I do not mind even a memo pad.
2. About a help. A help is necessary someday. There is whether it is late whether the time is early difference. I feel that the statement of iziBasic is near to API of PalmOS. It is difficult and may feel it. Because it is BASIC with GUI, there is a place slightly different from other BASIC. It is few differences.
3.About GUI. GUI is the function that PalmOS prepares for. I can make a button and the label with iziBasic. But the statement to make a menu and a form is not prepared for for the moment. Therefore I use a resource file. PalmOS refers to a resource file. Simple resources gather, and a resource file is made. It will confuse you.
I was confused, too. But I understood a resource file by using iziBasic. At the time of other programming languages, I was not able to understand.
Tuka |
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Answer n° 6 -------- 15/10/2007 @ 18:29 by Nate Weil
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I'm really sorry you don't speak english well :( because you seem to know what your talking about... Today I have been working more on it and am finding a lot more things that SmallBASIC and izi have in common, so really I guess I am happy. I'm just visualizing a BASIC that is as powerful as izibasic+visibasic, with the addition of easy menu additions, and maybe improved variables. In smallbasic, you need to declare arrays of course, but you don't need to declare a regular variable. This is true for izibasic to I know, but there's the dollar and number signs that you need too. In SmallBASIC you can declare a variable, and switch what it's used for wherever you want, whenever you want. I suppose this discussion can be close now, but I have a question now. When I press a GUI button, all the buttons get cleared from the screen. I finally found out how to fix this, by using a for-next loop to show all the GUI objects again, but this is a pain, and not possible if your just using visi+izi. I have to use another editor to get this in the main loop. Is there a way to stop the buttons getting cleared? Also there is a slight glitch. I made a program with vizi, edited it further with rsc edit or whatever it's called that comes with onboard C. When I went back to vizi, the changes I made didn't show up, even though I saved and closed and reopened the program. This should be fixed. Thanks for your time!
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Answer n° 7 -------- 16/10/2007 @ 02:44 by JoeV
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Hello Nate,
Although I do not use ViziBasic, I will try to answer your questions.
1. A GUI should not disappear when you press it. Something may be forcing your original form to revert back to console mode making your guis temporarily invisible. This could happen if you have a print command somewhere in your event code. Check your code for any screen prints.
2. If you are changing the resource code, you will probably have to recompile the code for the changes to take effect.
Hope this helps. Good Luck, JoeV
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Answer n° 8 -------- 17/10/2007 @ 00:39 by Nate Weil
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I figured out the problem. In the skeleton of the program that vizi makes when you make a new project, the program is constantly redrawing all objects on the screen in a loop. When I told the program to print to the screen when I press a button, it was looping in that section of the program, which did not include refreshing the buttons, so they dissapeared. Thanks for the reply tho! |
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Answer n° 9 -------- 17/10/2007 @ 21:03 by aldweb
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Hello everybody,
What an interesting discussion here. Nate, please let me tell you why I developped iziBasic... it is just because I did not like SmallBasic!
SmallBasic is an interpreter, iziBasic a p-code compiler. Developping an interpreter is fairly easy (you may give a look to the tinyBasic sample application which is a Basic interpreter developped with iziBasic), developping a compiler is a complete different story.
To be honest and complete, I also have to say that iziBasic is my first try in this kind of coding exercice and I took some options at the early stages which lead to its major lacks that have been mentionned. The main one was to develop a one pass compiler (meaning it reads the source code once) instead of a two passes compiler. This was faster to do but also brings some limits. The second major one was in developping the math parser, and this was not a piece of cake as I took the option to develop it in linear coding instead of the standard recursive way of proceeding (remember, iziBasic is a hobby for me, so I experiment with it).
A few other random comments: 1. Thanks to JoeV and tuka about the way they gently talked about my support, this is always nice to read! 2. An editor is not integrated within iziBasic because I believe that Piaf (SrcEdit and maybe a few other editors) are, by far, very optimized and dedicated applications for this purpose. So, I did all my best to integrate iziBasic with Piaf, providing syntax highlighting and easy launch of iziBasic from within Piaf, and returning the error code to Piaf in case of a compiling error. 3. SmallBasic is maybe more simple than iziBasic somehow, but it cannot go so far in developping real applications that can be then given away or sold to plenty of people. On the counterpart, SmallBasic is OS independant, which is a very good thing (same thing with tinyBasic... that I have ported to Pascal and that can be run on a PC). 4. Menu setup is not really possible without a resource editor like Bird (or RsrcEdit) because there are no Palm OS API to build a menu at runtime.
To end up, let me just rectify one point that Natee wrote: "In the skeleton of the program that vizi makes when you make a new project, the program is constantly redrawing all objects on the screen in a loop.". This is not true, the program is not constantly redrawing objects in a basic skeleton unless you told it to do so...
Cheers, aldweb
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Answer n° 10 -------- 17/10/2007 @ 21:39 by Nate Weil
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Ok that helps alot :) though I can prove you wrong on one point. Check out palm skirmish on palmgear.com... it's a program I have made and sold using smallbasic :). If my theory about the dissapearing buttons isn't correct, idk what it is but I have found out a lot more anyways, and plenty of ways to fix the said problem. I see your points for a built in editor, and I agree. But having a built in editor lets ppl start right out of the box and in the same program... it's just something I prefer to program hopping. I use rsc edit and except for not having a code coloring setting for izibasic, it's working great. I'm actually regretting having bought vizibasic because I can't do much with it. I have another thought and because I'm who I am I'll share it with you all :D. I really don't see how vizibasic will work, because you can't edit a lot of the program. All you can do is add buttons and have them do something. Look at it like this: in reflexez, I have a number that's constantly moving, going up every time around. I couldn't make this program with vizibasic, because in vizi all you can do is say do something when a button is hit, and then you can't do anything else until it's run through the button routine. So vizi will either need to be given up on, or given a big upgrade. Thanks for listening! |
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