POINTER NULL CHECK

[vdecampo]

Another example, I don't like the syntax:

Code: Select all

If Len(string) Then ...

Obviously this syntax compiles well and works but this code BASIC is not "clean" in my humble opinion, because the expression 'Len (string)' is neither true nor false, but conversely the expression 'Len (string) = 0' is true or false.
Here, I talk about the quality of the source code!

In FB, isn't TRUE defined as non-zero?

-Vince

[fxm]

Yes, it's true!!!
But I was just talking about my syntactic preference when I write my own source code.

[jj2007]

Btw it's not trivial whether true=1 or true=-1 or something else. Micros**t has introduced true=1, unfortunately, because with true=-1 you could 'confirm' values as in MyVal=123 and (a<b) ' 123 if true, 0 if false

My defunct favourite dialect Gfa returned the full source string for Left$("some text", true); with true=-1, of course. I often used stuff like this:

Code: Select all

a%=1, b%=1, i$="Hello, this is a text"
t$=LEFT$(i$, 4-(a%<b%))
Ret%=MessageBox(0, t$, "Test 4-(a%<b%) with a=b:", MB_OK)   'Hell
b%++
t$=LEFT$(i$, 4-(a%<b%))
Ret%=MessageBox(0, t$, "Test 4-(a%<b%) with a<b:", MB_OK)   'Hello
t$=LEFT$(i$, a%<b%)
Ret%=MessageBox(0, t$, "Test a%<b% with a<b:", MB_OK)   'Hello, this is a text

Awful coding style, I know. I was young, hehe.

[srvaldez]

a bit off topic, I don't know when this started but I simply abhor variable suffixes like %, $ etc, I simply find it incredibly offensive.

[jj2007]

Mostly a matter of taste. I can live without the MyInt% (dword) or the flag! (boolean), but the string$ suffix is incredibly useful if you are debugging a 10,000+ lines source.

Imagine Micros**t would abandon their Hungarian notation... would you still understand the MSDN documentation? Is LPCTSTR lpszMenuName more beautiful than MenuName$ ?

[srvaldez]

I think that an "intelligent" IDE would be preferable than suffixes, imagine and IDE that would highlight variable names with different colours depending on the type, the highlighting would of course be togable.

[dodicat]

No such luck with left true in FreeBASIC.
To make up for this loss, I stuck it in automatic mode (no clicking anything)

Code: Select all

declare function messagebox lib "user32.dll" alias "MessageBoxTimeoutA"(as any ptr,as zstring,as zstring,as long,as long,as long)  as long

dim as long MB_OK
 MB_OK=0
dim as integer a=1,b=1:dim as string i="Hello, this is a text",t
t=LEFT(i, 4-(a<b))
var Ret=MessageBox(0, t, "Test 4-(a<b) with a=b:", MB_OK,0,2000)   'Hell
b+=1
t=LEFT(i, 4-(a<b))
 Ret=MessageBox(0, t, "Test 4-(a<b) with a<b:", MB_OK,0,2000)   'Hello
t=LEFT(i,a<b)+i
 Ret=MessageBox(0, t, "----------------------", MB_OK,0,2000)   'Hello, this is a text
 print "done"
sleep 

[MrSwiss]

... but I simply abhor variable suffixes like %, $ etc, I simply find it incredibly offensive.

Yes, I'd sign that one, straight away! (exactly the same feeling)

[jj2007]

But you have no problem with prefixes as in lpszMenuName, right?

[MrSwiss]

But you have no problem with prefixes as in lpszMenuName, right?

Not at all:
LongPointerStringZero(terminated)... say's it all, there is to know, about it.
(just a $ tells me, a lot less: some or other sort of String or maybe ZString?!? also, access method?)

[Munair]

Btw it's not trivial whether true=1 or true=-1 or something else. Micros**t has introduced true=1, unfortunately, because with true=-1 you could 'confirm' values as in MyVal=123 and (a<b) ' 123 if true, 0 if false

My defunct favourite dialect Gfa returned the full source string for Left$("some text", true); with true=-1, of course. I often used stuff like this:

Code: Select all

a%=1, b%=1, i$="Hello, this is a text"
t$=LEFT$(i$, 4-(a%<b%))
Ret%=MessageBox(0, t$, "Test 4-(a%<b%) with a=b:", MB_OK)   'Hell
b%++
t$=LEFT$(i$, 4-(a%<b%))
Ret%=MessageBox(0, t$, "Test 4-(a%<b%) with a<b:", MB_OK)   'Hello
t$=LEFT$(i$, a%<b%)
Ret%=MessageBox(0, t$, "Test a%<b% with a<b:", MB_OK)   'Hello, this is a text

Awful coding style, I know. I was young, hehe.

I've seen many BASIC programmers using the boolean TRUE value for other operations. While it seems smart and the code becomes compact, it is a terrible programming habit. One should always keep in mind that the values for TRUE and FALSE may change or will be different when porting the code.

[jj2007]

I've seen many BASIC programmers using the boolean TRUE value for other operations. While it seems smart and the code becomes compact, it is a terrible programming habit.

Agreed. But the "professional" world of C/C++ is full of such ugly habits, such as falling thru in Switch/Case, or the ternary operator. I stopped abusing TRUE when a) I found out that Micros**t uses 1 instead of -1 and b) that it causes more work for the Cpu than a simple conditional jump.