Hi David,

Like it !
I can see it getting sent as an E-Xmas card....

Could I ask you add something to the title bar like "Written in BBC Basic For Windows"
Just as an advert for BB4W.

Cheers, David

This group has been set up as a precaution in case the BBCBASIC group
(whose owner and moderator cannot be traced) encounters problems such
as excessive spam or abuse. In those circumstances it would be my
intention to migrate members from that group to this one.

Richard.

--- In bb4w@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Russell" <yahoo@r...> wrote:

This group has been set up as a precaution in case the BBCBASIC

group

(whose owner and moderator cannot be traced) encounters problems

such

as excessive spam or abuse. In those circumstances it would be my
intention to migrate members from that group to this one.

Richard.

You clever clever guy - this exact idea had just occured to me, and
when I tried to do the same, I found yours!

Well done.

I'm here too!

To whet your appetite, and as an example of the kind of announcement
I intend to make in this group, here is a list of the main new
features in 'BBC BASIC for Windows' version 5.00a, due for release
in the next few weeks. Many of these features have been requested
by you, and I hope there is 'something for everyone' in the list.
If your suggestion isn't there I apologise; there will have been a
good reason why I didn't feel able to implement it.

New features in the BASIC interpreter:

1. GET(X,Y) and GET$(X,Y) return the character at the specified
text coordinates. This is much easier than moving the cursor there
and using the old OSBYTE call.

2. ON CLOSE LOCAL, ON MOUSE LOCAL, ON MOVE LOCAL, ON TIME LOCAL and
ON SYS LOCAL can be used within a function or procedure. They
restore the original event handler (if any) on exit.

3. Function and procedure pointers allow you to make indirect
calls, e.g. P% = ^PROC1 : PROC(P%) or F% = ^FN1() : x = FN(F%)(PI).
You can determine which function or procedure is called at run-time,
in a much more flexible way than can be achieved with EVAL or ON
PROC.

4. Procedure or function names may be passed as parameters to
procedures or functions, e.g. PROC2(FN1()). For example a function
to create a button could take as a parameter the name of the
procedure to be called when the button is pressed.

5. The CALL statement can be used with a string parameter to
execute BASIC program code in a specified file. For example, the
file may contain declarations of constants or structure definitions.
The code is discarded after it has been executed.

6. Structure prototypes are implemented. You can declare a
structure, sub-structure or structure-array to have the same members
and layout as a previously-declared structure.

New features in the Operating System interface:

1. The *TEMPO command allows you to set the units of the duration
parameter of the SOUND statement. Very useful for Morse programs!

2. The *SYS command enables the trapping of additional Windows
messages using ON SYS.

3. The thickness of straight lines and outline shapes (drawn with
DRAW, LINE, CIRCLE, ELLIPSE, RECTANGLE etc.) can be controlled.

New features in the Compiler:

1. The icon selected for the executable file is no longer
restricted to 16-colours and 32x32 pixels. You can chose an icon
which has multiple variants such as 256-colours or 48x48 pixels.

2. You can enable Windows XP Visual Styles for the executable file.
Executables generated using this option will have a more modern
appearance when run under Windows XP.

3. You can optionally crunch embedded BBC BASIC (.BBC) program files
and libraries, as if they were part of the main program.

New features in the Program Editor and User Interface:

1. Error reporting is improved. If an error occurs at run time
(even if trapped with ON ERROR) the statement responsible is
highlighted in the editor. Hovering the mouse over the highlighted
statement causes the error message to be displayed in a tooltip.

2. Windows XP Visual Styles are used, when running under Windows
XP.

3. Indentation can be enabled or disabled 'in one go' with the
Enable Indentation menu option.

4. You can Add REMs to, or Remove REMs from, every line in a
selected block using a right-click context menu option.

5. The Enter key automatically moves the cursor to the current
indent position.

6. The File...Load dialogue box now lists .BBC and .BAS files
together.

Please don't suggest any new features (it's far too late) and if you
don't like any of those which are implemented well, sorry, but tough!

I'll announce here when the new version is available for download.

Richard.

Hi, Richard and everyone. I also have decided to move across to this
group.

I'm here as well, I'm certain this is the right thing to do. And very
many thanks to Richard for his patient listening to my problems over
ata least 20 years (I'm ex-BBC R&D), some, no doubt, due to my
misunderstandings, but just occasionally I've spotted problems that
have been fixed and improved the language.

I really don't understand what the conspirators in the previous group
thought they were up to. Anyway - here we are anew!

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the bb4w
group.

File : /Graphics/PicViewII.bbc
Uploaded by : anthony7140 <tony.tooth@btinternet.com>
Description : Converts a picture to a fisheye version

You can access this file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bb4w/files/Graphics/PicViewII.bbc

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/files

Regards,

anthony7140 <tony.tooth@btinternet.com>

Just to get started really. Something I knocked together today. Left
click the mouse once the selected picture appears to get a fisheye
version, then rotate the mouse-wheel (tough if you aint got of them
thar thangs) to change the degree of fisheye-ness. Click the mouse
again to exit.

I was one of the "wait and see" people in the poll. But the new
administrator, new to the group, didn't bother to ask anyone what they
wanted from the group. He told everyone what he wanted to do with the
group and what the group was about.

He certainly had a right to do that but I guess the handwriting was on
the wall. If a group doesn't really belong to it's members it's not
going to be that useful.

Richard, now that you have the power please don't let it corrupt
you. :)

Barry

Hello all.

I am using version 4.01d and have noticed a couple of oddities with
regard to the editor. While messing about with a small routine of
about 20 lines I asked the editor to replace all instances of x with
x%. I clicked on replace all, but the editor replaced only half of
them. I clicked replace all a second time and it replaced the
remainder, but it of course added an extra % sign to those it had
previously changed. (x%%) Is there a cure?

The other oddity is when using left$, mid$ or right$ the first bracket
is coloured while the remainder are not. I prefer lower case
colouring to capitalization.

I am a very inexperienced user of BBC Basic for Windows so if you
think this matter not worth bothering about then just say so. But I am
curious about it.

Good luck to the new group,
Chris.

--- In bb4w@yahoogroups.com, "crimsonmini" <crimsonmini@y...> wrote:

Hello all.

I am using version 4.01d and have noticed a couple of oddities with
regard to the editor. While messing about with a small routine of
about 20 lines I asked the editor to replace all instances of x with
x%. I clicked on replace all, but the editor replaced only half of
them. I clicked replace all a second time and it replaced the
remainder, but it of course added an extra % sign to those it had
previously changed. (x%%) Is there a cure?

The other oddity is when using left$, mid$ or right$ the first bracket
is coloured while the remainder are not. I prefer lower case
colouring to capitalization.

I am a very inexperienced user of BBC Basic for Windows so if you
think this matter not worth bothering about then just say so. But I am
curious about it.

Good luck to the new group,
Chris.

You should have the cursor at the start of the program for the replace
all function to make all the required changes. It sounds like you had
the cursor somewhere around the middle of the program, so that only
about half the changes were made.

left$,etc, (and there are others such as tab), do only show the first
bracket. I'm not sure why this is the case, but be assured there is
nothing wrong with your version of Basic. I'm sure Richard has the
answer. I suspect colour is used to show that the keyword requires a
left bracket to begin with (which of course must end with a right
bracket).

Hello Richard, everyone,

I'm glad you have taken this decision. I hope you (and we too) can
concentrate on the 'real stuff' from now on. Success!

Ferdi Volckaert

--- In bb4w@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Russell" <yahoo@r...> wrote:

To whet your appetite, and as an example of the kind of

announcement

I intend to make in this group, here is a list of the main new
features in 'BBC BASIC for Windows' version 5.00a, due for release
in the next few weeks. Many of these features have been requested
by you, and I hope there is 'something for everyone' in the list.
If your suggestion isn't there I apologise; there will have been a
good reason why I didn't feel able to implement it.

New features in the BASIC interpreter:

1. GET(X,Y) and GET$(X,Y) return the character at the specified
text coordinates. This is much easier than moving the cursor there
and using the old OSBYTE call.

2. ON CLOSE LOCAL, ON MOUSE LOCAL, ON MOVE LOCAL, ON TIME LOCAL

and

ON SYS LOCAL can be used within a function or procedure. They
restore the original event handler (if any) on exit.

3. Function and procedure pointers allow you to make indirect
calls, e.g. P% = ^PROC1 : PROC(P%) or F% = ^FN1() : x = FN(F%)

(PI).

You can determine which function or procedure is called at run-

time,

in a much more flexible way than can be achieved with EVAL or ON
PROC.

4. Procedure or function names may be passed as parameters to
procedures or functions, e.g. PROC2(FN1()). For example a function
to create a button could take as a parameter the name of the
procedure to be called when the button is pressed.

5. The CALL statement can be used with a string parameter to
execute BASIC program code in a specified file. For example, the
file may contain declarations of constants or structure

definitions.

The code is discarded after it has been executed.

6. Structure prototypes are implemented. You can declare a
structure, sub-structure or structure-array to have the same

members

and layout as a previously-declared structure.

New features in the Operating System interface:

1. The *TEMPO command allows you to set the units of the duration
parameter of the SOUND statement. Very useful for Morse programs!

2. The *SYS command enables the trapping of additional Windows
messages using ON SYS.

3. The thickness of straight lines and outline shapes (drawn with
DRAW, LINE, CIRCLE, ELLIPSE, RECTANGLE etc.) can be controlled.

New features in the Compiler:

1. The icon selected for the executable file is no longer
restricted to 16-colours and 32x32 pixels. You can chose an icon
which has multiple variants such as 256-colours or 48x48 pixels.

2. You can enable Windows XP Visual Styles for the executable

file.

Executables generated using this option will have a more modern
appearance when run under Windows XP.

3. You can optionally crunch embedded BBC BASIC (.BBC) program

files

and libraries, as if they were part of the main program.

New features in the Program Editor and User Interface:

1. Error reporting is improved. If an error occurs at run time
(even if trapped with ON ERROR) the statement responsible is
highlighted in the editor. Hovering the mouse over the highlighted
statement causes the error message to be displayed in a tooltip.

2. Windows XP Visual Styles are used, when running under Windows
XP.

3. Indentation can be enabled or disabled 'in one go' with the
Enable Indentation menu option.

4. You can Add REMs to, or Remove REMs from, every line in a
selected block using a right-click context menu option.

5. The Enter key automatically moves the cursor to the current
indent position.

6. The File...Load dialogue box now lists .BBC and .BAS files
together.

Please don't suggest any new features (it's far too late) and if

you

don't like any of those which are implemented well, sorry, but

tough!

I'll announce here when the new version is available for download.

Richard.

Richard,

An excellent list of additional features for v5.0! 8-)

Many Thanks, and Congratulations on the new BB4W Group,

Andrew

"Richard Russell" wrote [in old user group]:

I need to decide what to do before releasing the new version of BBC

BASIC for Windows, since the link in the Help menu will need to
reflect whatever decision is taken. <

It is already settled but one possible solution might have been to
include an editable link in the Help menu. Should your web-site or
user group change in the future for any reason (positive, negative,
beyond anyone's control) then users could easily update the links
without a patch. (Needless to say, this convenience may have its own
problems too).

-S.O.

"Tony Tooth" wrote [in old user group]:

I presume you are a "scientific" programmer rather than a "business"

programmer, since I always view BB4W as a more "scientific" oriented
language, like FORTRAN or ADA. <

Yes, you are very right. In connection with my work I have to deal
with physical and chemical problems using Ada and Fortran. But BBCB4W
is my personal choice (although I am quite new to it). I have found
that it is a powerful language perfectly suited for many scientific
and engineering computations (not mission-critical real-time
applications). It has an optimal combination of programming features,
speed of execution (fairly fast on most problems) and ease of use that
facilitates program development at all levels.

-S.O.

You may be interested in the programs on my website, in that case (if
you don't already know of it). Particularly my use of embedded ASM in
very computationally intensive situations.

www.btinternet.com/~tony.tooth/



--- In bb4w@yahoogroups.com, "stellaroutflow" <stellaroutflow@y...>
wrote:

"Tony Tooth" wrote [in old user group]:

I presume you are a "scientific" programmer rather than

a "business"

programmer, since I always view BB4W as a more "scientific"

oriented

language, like FORTRAN or ADA. <

Yes, you are very right. In connection with my work I have to deal
with physical and chemical problems using Ada and Fortran. But

BBCB4W

is my personal choice (although I am quite new to it). I have found
that it is a powerful language perfectly suited for many scientific
and engineering computations (not mission-critical real-time
applications). It has an optimal combination of programming

features,

speed of execution (fairly fast on most problems) and ease of use

that

facilitates program development at all levels.

-S.O.

Richard and everyone,

I've joined this new group and left the old group.

Glad to be with you all!

Regards to all

Barry Newton (bpn1936)