braner@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (braner) (07/20/87)
[] I was waiting for DBASIC for a long time, and it is finally here. It is fast _and_ interactive since it is an incremental compiler: Each line is instantly compiled the moment you hit Return. The promise of _fast_ double-precision floating-point is kept, but I doubt that I will use DBASIC anyway: It requires line numbers, and the editing, although described as "screen", is "line plus" as far as I'm concerned: One can put the cursor on any text line on the screen, delete chars (with the Delete key), overwrite chars (by typing), and hit Return to enter the line (as a command or, if it starts with a number, a program line). But to insert chars one needs to insert spaces (with the Insert key), then overwrite them. The Backspace key is dead: you have to go back with arrows, then overwrite or kill to the end of the line (ctrl-P). No Search command. Listings reformat the BASIC lines for you with no blank lines, no indentation... (and commands are accepted in uppercase only!) I spent a lot of time writing a _real_ screen editor integrated into DOS on the Apple ][, and I am _not_ going to repeat that. I suspect anybody who has used a screen editor will not like the DBASIC environment for this reason alone. That's too bad, since DBASIC has a lot going for it otherwise. And the Atari ST, with the 68000 and lots of RAM could _easily_ provide the user with real screen editing _and_ incremental compilation. My screen editor on the Apple ][ used 4K for code + the text size, did everything instantly, and included searches and so on. It's amazing how nice BASIC can get when one is allowed to indent, leave blank lines, and insert comment lines. And with local variables, as in GFA BASIC... - Moshe Braner BTW: the feats of DBASIC-DOS are easily duplicated under TOS using the FAST format (or Twister, or...) and calling the correct OS calls with large buffers. BUT: if you've tried a command like "del *.xyz" in MS-DOS and in TOS, did you notice how it takes about 1 second in MS-DOS and about 2 seconds _per_deleted_file_ in TOS? Argghhh!