lowey@sask.UUCP (Kevin Lowey) (03/02/88)
Hello Again,
This is a continuation of my previous message on the Borland Turbo
Pascal Programmer's Development Kit. I went home and checked the
differences between the old toolbox manuals and the new toolboxes and
found the following. This is long, but since I saw many people posting
messages wondering when the packages would be shipped, I thought they
might wish to know what the packages contain.
Graphics Tool Kit:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is virtually no difference between the old version and the new
version. The table of contents is identical between the two versions.
There is no device independant support as is supplied in the GRAPH unit
in TP 4. There is also no way to include the font files, error message
files, etc. into the .EXE file as you can with the GRAPH drivers and fonts.
The only devices supported are the ones supported in the GRAPH unit.
The Heath/Zenith support is gone. Personally, I wish that the Toolbox
had been re-written on top of the existing device independant GRAPH unit
in TP4. This would make the routines much more portable because the
program could decide what device to use at run time, instead of
compiling seperate versions of the program for each graphics driver.
Database ToolKit:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This manual is the only one containing a section on conversions
between the old toolbox and the new one.
The SORT routine now allows you to pass the address of your INP, LESS,
and OUTP routines to the TurboSort procedure. This allows you to use
SORT on different data easier because you can write different versions
of these procedures and pass the different addresses (using the "@") to
the TurboSort routine, making it more general.
The Turbo Access system for B+ trees is also improved. A utility
program called TABUILD creates the constants for your database B+ tree
for you. This makes designing your database easier.
The index key type is now a LONGINT instead of an integer, so you can
now have over 2 billion records instead of 64000. Also more error
information is given when an error occurs. The new functions ERASEFILE,
ERASEINDEX, FLUSHFILE and FLUSHINDEX have been added. You can also use
the Turbo 4 error handler to close files if an error occurs.
I also liked the demo program which gives a graphic example of exactly
what happens when records are added to or deleted from a B+ tree.
The Editor Toolkit:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The manual for this has greatly improved. In addition to the
programming notes, it also has a user's manual for the simple FirstEd
and the more powerful MicroStar. The MicroStar capabilities have also
been enhanced, such as adding context sensitive help. The text editing
theory is also explained in more detail.
The main difference between the versions is the Binary Editor (BINED).
BINED is THE editor used in all Borland products (Turbo Pascal,
Sidekick, C, Reflex, etc.). It is supplied as a .TPU file. The program
adds only 13K of code. The manual includes user's instructions and
Programmer's instructions for using the binary editor.
There is also support for Turbo Lightning. The MicroStar example
program uses calls to Turbo Lightning if it is installed to spell check
the document you are editing. This can be added to your program so it
can do spell checks and Thesaurus checks (great for natural language
processing, etc.).
Turbo Pascal Tutor:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Turbo Tutor has been completely re-done to match the new Turbo
Pascal environment. I didn't have the older version, but the latest
version contains:
- A history of computing and programming languages
- A description of the Turbo environment
- Descriptions of the components of Pascal
- Advanced concepts like arrays, pointers, sorting, stacks, queues,
and lists. It looks like it could replace many Computer Science
introductory course texts.
Example programs included are:
- Turbo Typist, a simple yet effective typing tester
- FileMgr, a simple file manager which lets you rename, delete, etc.
files.
- Animals, an artificial intelligence program to guess what animal you
are thinking of.
- Tutor, a CAI program which follows the concepts in the book,
demonstrating them on the screen using text and animation.
The Numerical Methods Toolbox:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't have the old version of this toolbox, so I cannot make direct
comparisons. This toolbox contains a number of advanced numerical routines
including:
- Roots to Equations in One Variable (6 methods)
- Interpolation (4 methods)
- Numerical Differentiation (5 methods)
- Numerical Integration (5 methods)
- Matrix Routines (6 methods)
- Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors (4 methods)
- Initial value and Boundary value methods (9 methods)
- Least-Squares Approximations (1 method )
- Fast Fourier Transforms (1 method )
There are also some graphics demonstration programs (which use the
Graphics Toolbox) for Fourier Transforms and Least Squares.
Each procedure has a description of the theory and computational
considerations (roundoff errors, etc.). The toolbox is an excellent
supplement to a numerical methods course for computer programmers
familiar with pascal.
Turbo Gameworks:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't see any practical development uses for this, but it does
demonstrate the computational theory behind Chess, Bridge, and Go-Muko.
The strategy of each game is discussed, as well as the computer history
for the program. Finally, the programming theory behind the programs
are discussed in detail.
One final note. All the manuals are the same size, and all fit in a
nice cardboard box. If you take the case for the disks out, there is
just enough room to put your Turbo Pascal 4.0 manual :-)
Hope you enjoyed this "review".
______________________________________________________________________________
| Kevin Lowey |The above is the personal opinion of Kevin |
| University of Saskatchewan |Lowey. It does not reflect the position of|
| Computing Services |the University of Saskatchewan in any way. |
| SaskTel: (306) 966-4826 | |
| Bitnet:LOWEY@SASK. (preferred) |I am in no way affiliated with any of the |
| UUCP: ihnp4!sask!lowey.uucp |above mentioned companies other than U of S|
|________________________________|___________________________________________|