FBeginner

[rdc]

I did not get as much done as I wanted to this week, but I did manage to add some more content. I also added an experimental html version to my website. This is an html export from OO Writer, and while it isn't too bad, it needs some work.

You can find both links in the first post.

[Moneo]

Richard,

Congratulations on an outstanding book. I'm sure it will soon become the de facto reference manual for Freebasic.

BTW, we have some companies in common. Back in 1969 I was at GE working on a pioneer point-of-sale system called TRADAR which was installed in JC Penney stores in Southern California.

I also spent 16 years at Citibank in software development. The first 8, in the 1970's, were actually at TTI/Citicorp in LA, where we developed the hardware/software for revolutionizing Citibank New York to an online/realtime 24x7 banking system. The next 8 years were at Citibank-Mexico.

Yes, you have been hiding.

Regards,
Edward F. Moneo

[na_th_an]

Awesome work. Congratulations. Top notch, man.

[rdc]

Thank you both.

[relsoft]

I haven't read this as I hated PDF's. But man this is AWESOME!!!!

mantra....

CHM.....CHM....CHM.....

[rdc]

Heh. Thanks rel.

Once I get the book ready I am going to work on getting an HTML version, and then it will be easy to port to CHM.

[LooseCaboose]

Very nice. I do have a few constructive criticisms though:

1. I think the chapter layout is a little confusing for beginners. You introduce FreeBasic's compatibility with C before you explain how to add two numbers together for example. A better layout (IMHO) would be: Numeric data types, Arithmetic operators, Converting numbers. The chapter on C compatibility could even be moved to an appendix: it isn't really necessary in a beginners book for FreeBasic. When it is necessary to explain some of the C compatibility (Zstrings for example) it could be noted in the text that further information is available in the appendicies.

2. You don't introduce strings until chapter 10. Most introduction to programming books explain strings early on since they are fairly important in holding the readers interest since they can write programs which produce interesting output. I would probably split the string chapter in two, having a basic string chapter early in the text and an advanced chapter later explaining things like Zstrings, Wstrings and pointers to strings.

3. You don't appear to have a chapter on logical constructs (yet?). A chapter covering if, while, for, etc should probably be introduced early on (possibly just after the chapters on using numbers). Again you could split this into a beginner and advanced chapter, with the advanced chapter explaining things like the switch statement and nested loops.

4. You also lack a chapter on functions and subroutines. They are introduced briefly in the introduction to FBIDE however a more indepth coverage would be nice.

5. Some of your sentences are a bit hard to follow. Occasionaly you use too many commas. For example:

Since FreeBasic uses the runtime library, you can use it as well in your programs, and there are a number of useful functions available.

Could be rewritten as:

Since FreeBasic includes the runtime library you can use it in your programs. The runtime library provides a number of useful functions.

Note that the comma after library is not necessary (or correct). Commas are need when joining to independant clauses (see here and here). It would probably be a good idea to list a few of the useful functions after the second sentence. There are also a number of instances where ", and" would be better replaced with a fullstop and a new sentence.

Aside from those things (apologies if I sound harsh) the book is looking great. The introduction is very easy to follow and the examples and caution notes are very helpful. Keep up the good work.

[rdc]

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on the book. The book is far from finished at this point. I am still working on the first draft so the book hasn't gone through any edits yet; I'll do that when I get the first draft completed.

[Dio]

quick question: why can't i have a unsigned double?
too many decimal places? that's what i'm guessing.

[rdc]

I would guess that would be the reason. Doubles are stored differently than integers since you have to keep track of both the integer part and decimal part.