CompuServe Thread

Mike, If I can step in here. You're quite right. Unfortunately, many don't realize that there are some alternatives to AmigaBasic which are much better. In particular I like HiSoft Basic, which is essentially compatible with AmigaBasic yet offers many nice extensions, especially in control statements. F-Basic is quite interesting, also. It is less a traditional Basic than is HiSoft or Amigabasic, yet provides outstanding string manipulation, a RECORD structure like Pascal, heavy typing, global and local subroutines, etc. It is also the fastest compiled language around for single precision math. F-Basic uses an extended single precision real which provides greater accuracy than that of other Basics yet is extremely quick, faster than C for a single precision real. It also offers double precision reals which are also much faster than other Basics. Lastly, there's GFA Basic, which apparently will disappear soon, according to Betty. GFA is also an extended Basic with many features far beyond that of mortal Basics! Unfortunately, it often suffers from reliability problems. An add-on product for Basic, Extend by SunSmile Software, provides access to gadgets, requestors, etc. It is a nice product, well thought out with a simple interface and works as a shared library. I think that Basic on the Amiga can do many things, one just needs to find the right one, and AmigaBasic isn't the best available. BTW are you getting lots of rain in Lauderdale? Tampa is finally getting wet after 5 years of dry summers. Steve

Steve, I have another message for you from Jim Butterfield: Mail From: Buttrfield Date: Thursday 26-Jul-90 19:28 EDT To scan the device list (grunt!) ** indicates area where a chain could be changed as you followed it (danger!) 1. ** Find DosBase by following the library chain (start at address 4?) 2. Use structure DosLibrary; at +$22 (34) follow the chain to RootNode. 3. +$18 (24) in RootNote gives you a BPTR to a DosInfo structure. Remember you must multiply by 4 to get the addrs. 4. DosInfo+4 gives you a BPTR to the Device List. 5. Each DeviceList entry has a BPTR to the next (at +0). If you have a zero there, the entry is not a valid one and you're at the end. ** 6. At +$28 (40) in each legit DeviceList you have a BSTR to the Device name. Hop e you know how to handle those. 7. For devices only, DeviceList+4 must be zero. It's intersting to see the other entries, though. I played with a Lock of zero .. thought it might take me where I wanted .. .. regrettably, it hooked me up to the SYS: device only. ..so the previous stuff is the best I can think of right now. ——————————————– Steve, I believe that Jim's StructBrowser program is probably still in our libraries, though I have not looked for it in a long time. It was written (first) entirely in BASIC, and would go through all of the structures, giving considerable information about each. If it isn't here, and if it is of interest, I can probably find it again on one of my disks. It was one of the first things he wrote for the Amiga, so it's getting pretty old now, but it worked well. I'm pretty sure it still works. As for BASIC – it is pretty much a universal language for computers. Almost everyone has had some experience with it and can understand what is going on in a BASIC program. For other languages, which certainly do have advantages in various ways, we lack that universality. I do hate to lose a common language, even if it is not the very finest. To be honest, Greek [ MORE ]

[ continuation ] is probably a better language than English, and certainly more precise,, but I do hope we don't all have to change over to it! ……Betty