Suggestions:

[Antoni Gual]

1.-To debug a windowed program is not easy, why don't borrow the VB's Debug.Print? A preprocessor switch in the compiler could enable and disable it depending on the part beind debugged and a general switch would disable it for the release version

2.- I'm tired of writing things like this:

Code:

crlf$=chr$(10)+chr$(13)
quote$=chr$(34)
message$="this is the "+quote$+"first"+quote$+"line"+crlf$+ _
                "this is the "+quote$+"second"+quote$+"line"

why don't allow to escape characters in the string literals? We could have an OPTION ESCAPE keyword (by default FB would behave as QB)
then we could write:

Code:

message$="this is the \34first\34 line\nthis is the \34second\34line"

not very clear but easier to type. People coding text adventures would like it...

[DrV]

2.- I'm tired of writing things like this:

Code:

crlf$=chr$(10)+chr$(13)
quote$=chr$(34)
message$="this is the "+quote$+"first"+quote$+"line"+crlf$+ _
                "this is the "+quote$+"second"+quote$+"line"

why don't allow to escape characters in the string literals? We could have an OPTION ESCAPE keyword (by default FB would behave as QB)
then we could write:

Code:

message$="this is the \34first\34 line\nthis is the \34second\34line"

For embedded double quotes, use something like 'message$="this is the ""first"" line" like in VB. Introducing backslash escapes would wreak havoc on DOS/Windows paths, so be careful what you wish for...

[Antoni Gual]

I did'nt know about the double quote...
Anyways.Without OPTION ESCAPE enabled, everything would work the same, and with it enabled (new programs) a double backslash could be used.
Or we could use any other char as escape , as # We should think it carefully as there are chances PRINT USING works some day RINT USING uses \, # and everything else we could use as escape ......perhaps a spanish n-tilde? ñññ

[v3cz0r]

Yeap, number 2 added: http://forum.qbasicnews.com/viewtopic.php?p=89283#89283

I prefer ASSERT( ) with debugging, i won't add it now tho.

[The Car]

Nuts, using \ just seems so natural to me. (I code in C and C# a lot).

Anyone who sees \n would recognise it over ~n I would think, plus having basic programmers get used to \ as escape would make for a more natural transition to C/C++.

One thing that is handy in C# is the ability to proceed a string with the @ character. This prevents escape sequences for that string. It is very useful for exceptions to the rule.


Example:

string d1 = "c:\\these\\paths\\are_the_same";
string d2 = @"c:\these\paths\are_the_same";

Just my two cents.

[retsyo]

@ is used for function pointer in fbc, and is used for constant string objects in GNU Objective-C( http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.4.3/...ng-objects)
I prefer to "r" for raw string, which is used in Python. So
r"\n" is "\\n" in C. Furthermore, "u" is for unicode string, if any.

[The Car]

Yes, I agree. I wasn't really suggesting that we use the character @ (as it would not work in fb as you pointed out). However, having similar funtionality in FB would be nice (like using r).

[Antoni Gual]

v1c: Assert would be ok, provided it displayed Message boxes when the assertion failed. The issue is to have a way to display variable values when no console is available.

[adosorken]

Anyone who sees \n would recognise it over ~n I would think, plus having basic programmers get used to \ as escape would make for a more natural transition to C/C++.

While I agree with the first half of this point, the second half kinda bugs me. What if coders don't WANT to transition to C/C++? The whole reason I personally left C/C++ behind a few months ago was because of FB. Yeah you heard right...I ditched C in favor of FB.

(cue Plasma with some dumb remark...)

[SJ Zero]

Here's an odd suggestion, why not have an automatic pageflipping thread in qbgfxlib which updates the screen after screen is first called until flip() is called for the first time? I know it's a bit ugly, but it would probably save a newb or two from picking up FreeBASIC, being completely unable to draw to the screen and saying "screw this, I'm going to learn advanced calculus, put a man on the moon, and learn C/Allegro!".