Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!gatech!prism!bb16
From: bb16@prism.gatech.EDU (Scott Bostater)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Doubts on TP 6.0 updatating being worth the while
Summary: It's worth it to me
Message-ID: <19416@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 9 Jan 91 15:01:55 GMT
References: <1991Jan8.215108.24559@uwasa.fi> <2396@bnlux0.bnl.gov> <1991Jan9.133809.5938@wpi.WPI.EDU>
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 46

In vairous articles, Kamal Z Zamli, christopher kushmerick, and Timo Salmi 
write:   

[ Gross Summary:   TP6.0 and TVision aren't worth upgrading to ]

To make one vote against the majority opinion.  I would reccommend upgrading to
TP6.0.   One feature that doesn't get mentioned a lot is that TP6.0 can 
generate 80286 instrutions ( {$G+} ).  This in itself helped me speed up a
couple of program by 25-50%.  Granted, if you're still using an 8088, it's not
a feature, but I've been wishing for 286 instructions since TP4.0.  The multi-
file editor is also plus (I'm too cheap to spend $$$ on Epsilon, Brief, 
<insert favorite editor>, etc) since my other programming editor (PE 2) didn't
interface nicely with TPC.

TVision:   
While I can't say that I'm 100% in love with all of their units, they do 
provide a building block.  I don't really care for their color selection 
(Dialog boxes and push buttons esp.) but you have the capability of changing 
the colors (and the users of your software can change them again if they 
don't like your favorite colors.

As far as not providing all of their source code, the idea behind OOP is to 
NOT go back to the building blocks, but to build on, enhance, or delete 
features of your building blocks.  Sometimes that's easier said then done,
but that's what Borland is trying to get us to do  (along with standardizing
to one user interface).  

I can't say that I'm 100% in love with OOP techniques or that I'm comfortable
with all the hidden subtleties of inheritance, poly-whatever, etc.  Most of
the time I don't use the OOP features, but I try to use them when I can.  My
major motivation is remembering when I first started working 8 years ago and 
couldn't for the life of me convice the other engineers that indenting their
FORTRAN programs and using variable names other than a, b, aa, bb, i, j, and k
would make life easier down the road.  

My Bottom Line:  
It's worth the upgrade price just for the 286 instructions.  OOPs and TVision
are bonuses to make the deal even better.  

Anyway,  that's my $0.05  ($0.02 plus overhead)
          
-- 
Scott Bostater      Georgia Tech Research Institute - Radar Systems Analysis
"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him"  -Ps 62.1
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