Author Topic: my thoughts on basic  (Read 3325 times)

Offline JESSEW

  • WarSOFT Apps
  • BASIC Developer
  • Posts: 6
my thoughts on basic
« on: October 10, 2018, 05:25:24 PM »
first, I'd like to say kudo's to john for his time and energy in the basic programming arena. one of these days when I have some spare time, I'd like to familiarize myself with SB and use it a little =)

back in the 80's I used a little machine language to add some commands and enhancements to atari basic. nothing as grand as frank ostrowski's turbo basic xl, but it was mine. I have yearned deeply ever since to develop my own basic interpreter. but I just never have the time. my job and family commitments use all the spare time I have. but perhaps someday...

some thoughts I have along those lines are: android os with system and event support, support for all farm types, and the kicker: nested subs. there are no basic apps on the play store that have these features. nested subs would give the coder a flexability akin to poor mans objects, and combined with the ability to alias imported files, would give the community the ability to easily share code segments and incorporate them as subs (ie. wrapped in sub / end sub) and code re-usability would go thru the roof. add in the ability to compile to an apk file and you've really got something! I was also thinking it'd be nice to be able to call any android object in the system natively from within the interpreter, but that'd be a real challenge. imagine drag n drop game engines.

john, sorry I've been absent. I really enjoyed our private chats. feel free to shout out anytime!

jesse
When life throws a planet at you, pull your rip-cord!

Offline John

  • Forum Support / SB Dev
  • Posts: 3597
    • ScriptBasic Open Source Project
Re: my thoughts on basic
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2018, 05:29:55 PM »
Great to have you back!

Are you still doing anything with B4A?

Offline JESSEW

  • WarSOFT Apps
  • BASIC Developer
  • Posts: 6
Re: my thoughts on basic
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2018, 07:24:47 PM »
not so much. working 12 hr days m-f, and some wkends doesn't leave much time, and I'm starting to lose some of my wits, so its becoming harder to come back to something and do tints coding, especially when I only have a few minutes at a time. I try on the wkends, but someone always needs something and when they don't, I catch up on naps =) I miss the office environment I had at the ISP I worked for. I was coding all the time and loved it. I thought this local driving job would help, but it doesn't. i'm afraid my coding days are all behind me.

good to hear from you. hope ur well and in good spirits! =)
When life throws a planet at you, pull your rip-cord!

Offline John

  • Forum Support / SB Dev
  • Posts: 3597
    • ScriptBasic Open Source Project
Re: my thoughts on basic
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2018, 09:49:17 PM »
It's sugar in your coffee if you can make a hobby pay off.

Mike Lobanovsky

  • Guest
Re: my thoughts on basic
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2018, 11:37:29 PM »
Hi Jesse,

Yes, nested subs (a.k.a. closures) are feasible and have been implemented in the BASIC layer of my FBSL alongside true namespaces and classes. They help to nicely modularize the otherwise procedural code according to its purpose within the application, without the need to resort to 100% pure OOP.