Announcement

**Lance Edmonds** · 11 Mar 2002, 03:37 PM

Yes there will be at least one more major version of PB/DOS developed, but it's feature set has not been disclosed. This is because PowerBASIC operates a no-vaporware policy that prevents staff from participating in discussions on as-yet unreleased products.

Thanks for asking anyway!

PS: if you have any other suggestions you'd like to see, please feel free to post them here... thanks!

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**Daryl Lock** · 11 Mar 2002, 07:26 PM

Originally posted by Lance Edmonds:

PS: if you have any other suggestions you'd like to see, please feel free to post them here... thanks!

Hmmm...playing your cards close, eh?
Well, not being greedy or anything...but apart from my previous wish...two other things come to mind. (1) Easier access to the DPMI API and (2) VESA 3 compatability in the video modes - dump CGA and EGA - who uses monitor resolutions with pixels the size of pennies these days anyway?

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**Lance Edmonds** · 11 Mar 2002, 07:36 PM

Thanks! JFYI, VESA support has been requested a few times in one form or another, but the problem is that fewer and fewer graphics cards support all modes... similar problem for MODEX modes. This means that such features could have a limited potential "audience".

What it boils down to is this: features have to be commercially viable for the company to justify the time/effort/money needed to develop the code, and our customers obviously have to be willing to pay for such new features or we are sunk before we even start.

That said, decisions on new features are made in the realm of the R&D and Sales departments not Tech Support, so I can't give any guarantees one way or the other...

So, this is on the wish list, we'll <U>all</U> have to see what develops!

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**Mel Bishop** · 12 Mar 2002, 02:57 PM

Originally posted by Lance Edmonds:

PS: if you have any other suggestions you'd like to see, please feel free to post them here... thanks!

I would REALLY like to see the capability of storing data in
unused XMS/EMS memory. I get sick when I do a MEM, see all that
(un)available memory and I can't use it.

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**Daryl Lock** · 12 Mar 2002, 07:47 PM

Originally posted by Mel Bishop:
I would REALLY like to see the capability of storing data in
unused XMS/EMS memory. I get sick when I do a MEM, see all that
(un)available memory and I can't use it.

I had a look at the DPMIPB example in the downloads section. It works...

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**Mel Bishop** · 12 Mar 2002, 08:37 PM

Hi Daryl

I downloaded and tried DPMIPB but come to find out, it doesn't
work on DOS 6.x. Only on windows 95 up and some other obscure
O/S's.

Cheers
Mel

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[This message has been edited by Mel Bishop (edited March 12, 2002).]

**Skip Osterhus** · 12 Mar 2002, 11:34 PM

Lance -

It would be nice to see an 'end map' to terminate a map statement.
Example:

map Buffer$$ as 200
from 1 to 5 as Field1$$
from 6 to 10 as Field2$$
from 11 to 15 as Field3$$
end map

This would also allow blank lines between the map and end map.
For backward compatibility, the 'from' lines could optionally
terminate with ',_', but I wouldn't mind if that wasn't
supported either.

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**Lance Edmonds** · 13 Mar 2002, 12:37 AM

Thanks Skip!

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**OTTO WIPFEL** · 13 Mar 2002, 01:22 AM

Skip -

I that not the same as my:

MAP RECORD$$ 200, 5 AS FIELD1$$, 20 AS FIELD2$$, 175 AS THEREST$$

I always build spare capacity into my Database designs because clients
never know what they really need at the planning stage.

This 175 long "Spare" can then be remapped at leisure during the later
stages of ongoing development.

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**Tom Hanlin** · 13 Mar 2002, 04:52 AM

Mel, did you have something other than DIM VIRTUAL in mind?

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Tom Hanlin
PowerBASIC Staff

**Mel Bishop** · 13 Mar 2002, 06:33 AM

Tom

We may be straying slightly off topic here but since you asked....

I think the best way to let you know what I want is to give you
an example, so here goes...

t = fre(-11)

dim virtual a$(50000) [as string] ' should already know that
open "somefile.txt" for input as #1
for i = 1 to maxI
line input #1,a$(i) ' <<----- All this stuff is stored in EMS/XMS
next i
close #1

BTW: I bought PB35 only a couple of months ago and I'm still
learning it. It is entirely possible that I am mis-reading the
documentation so would appreciate some slack here

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**Tom Hanlin** · 13 Mar 2002, 10:02 AM

Ok. Virtual arrays only support fixed-length types. I don't think this is likely to change-- the performance of variable-length virtual strings would probably be just impossibly slow.

XMS may be practical. Sounds like a good thing, anyway. We'll certainly put it on the wish list.

------------------
Tom Hanlin
PowerBASIC Staff

**Skip Osterhus** · 13 Mar 2002, 09:46 PM

Otto - The reason I desire an 'end map' statement is too
allow blank lines to be embedded with the complete
map definition. This would also eliminate the trailing
',_' when using multiple lines. It really doesn't
have anything to do with the actual application
definition/usage of the mapped field. It is more of a
convenience for a lazy, me, programmer.

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**Michael Mattias** · 14 Mar 2002, 02:37 AM

If you can change your dynamic strings to ASCIIZ or fixed-length strings, you can have an array of fix-length elements.

You'll need to trim them at "use" time, but at least you can store them.

As long as there is a reasonable max size for the strings, this should work.

MCM

**Daryl Lock** · 16 Mar 2002, 04:41 AM

Originally posted by Mel Bishop:
Hi Daryl

I downloaded and tried DPMIPB but come to find out, it doesn't
work on DOS 6.x. Only on windows 95 up and some other obscure
O/S's.

Cheers
Mel

It works fine on DR-DOS 7.03

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**Daryl Lock** · 16 Mar 2002, 04:55 AM

This one comes from RapidQ Basic ( a Winderz app) - the TYPE structure can look like this;

TYPE myType 'define a type
Fred AS INTEGER
George AS STRING * 32
Bill AS INTEGER
CONSTRUCTOR 'assign some default values
Fred = 5
George = "Default Value"
END CONSTRUCTOR
SUB Whatif PRIVATE 'anything else
IF Bill = Fred THEN
Do this
END IF
END SUB
END TYPE

It would be sweet if PB did this too...really...

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**Buck Huffman** · 21 Mar 2002, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by Mel Bishop:
Hi Daryl

I downloaded and tried DPMIPB but come to find out, it doesn't
work on DOS 6.x. Only on windows 95 up and some other obscure
O/S's.

Cheers
Mel

Mel;

The problem may be that you need a DPMI server to provide your
program with 32 bit capabilities under plain DOS. If windows is
running, it will provide this for you(this is known as the
windows console). If windows is not running, then you will need
to run a DPMI server such as CWSDPMI, look for it here
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/9159/
, there are many others available on the net, and some non-Microsoft
versions of DOS will provide it natively, but I'm not sure which ones.

I hope this is of some help

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[This message has been edited by Buck Huffman (edited March 21, 2002).]

**Daryl Lock** · 21 Mar 2002, 07:46 PM

Originally posted by Buck Huffman:
Mel;

If windows is not running, then you will need
to run a DPMI server such as CWSDPMI

Just a tip...

The documentation for CWSDPMI is obviously written by a programmer, not a technical document writer so it is a mish mash of assumed knowledge but if you use it, set it with the '/p' option ie 'CWSDPMI /p' or it'll unload after a single use.

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