Xref: utzoo alt.religion.computers:2553 comp.windows.ms.programmer:3279 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!pa.dec.com!bacchus!mwm From: mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) Newsgroups: alt.religion.computers,comp.windows.ms.programmer Subject: Re: ap, Windows BASIC Message-ID: Date: 24 Jun 91 17:20:10 GMT References: <91169.084617F0O@psuvm.psu.edu> <4k4q47w164w@mantis.co.uk> <1991Jun20.034708.2816@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> <1991Jun21.002629.17528@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> <1991Jun22.040051.9290@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> Sender: news@pa.dec.com (News) Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 84 In-Reply-To: rogerhef@matt.ksu.ksu.edu's message of 22 Jun 91 04:00:51 GMT In article <1991Jun22.040051.9290@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> rogerhef@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Roger Heflin) writes: In mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: >Ah, a gratuitous insult. You obviously never considered that someone >might have different tastes than you do. I see the pot is calling the kettle black. What you say above applies to you just as much as it applies to me. You started this by saying BASIC==BAD, you assumed that what you thought was best for everyone, if you like it everyone must, so if you think is it bad everyone must. I advise you to wake up. I never said that BASIC was bad. Someone started saying what a great environment QB was, so I asked questions about that environment. The answers appear to show that it's not all that great, so I get flamed. Oh well, this is alt.religion.computers.. I'm willing to find out if QB is a reasonable language, though. Let's see, does it ... run on anything other than MS-DOS platforms? support some form of list or dynamic array structure? have associate arrays? have the ability to map functions across those arrays? and generate a list of changes? and select elements (ala grep)? let me map n-ary functions across n arrays, with all the above? support arrays/lists that are circular? have some form of lazy evaluation? have real macros, not the text-replacement crap C has? let me define new control constructs? have an iterator construct for user data types? make my data types first-class elements? make functions first-class elements? allow me to create anonymous functions at run-time? have both lexical and dynamic binding? support data abstraction? have inheritance? multiple inheritance? Any language that doesn't support a fair percentage of those probably isn't worth my time. If you like it, fine. Me, I've gotten used to programming languages that support the kinds of features I listed. Having to deal with something like C or Pascal after that is painfull, at best. Now, is QB reasonable, or is it like C and Pascal, so that BASIC is still 20 years behind the times. >Ah, another strike against them. The windows interface, MS-DOS and the >8086 architechtures deserve each other. The windows enviroment works considerably easier than the X-windows enviroment, Which X-windows environment? The one that looks just like Windows? That's an interesting statement. Or maybe you mean the Open Look environment? Or the uwm environment? or the twm environment? Or one of the two vtwm environments? Of course, X-windows is pretty much worthless, anyway. It comes with a sufficient selection of environments that I can get work done without going cursing at the window manager at regular intervals (unlike Windows). But saying that a window system is "better than X-windows" like saying that an OS is "better than MS-DOS". BFD; anyone who can't do better than those two examples should find themselves another line of work. If you hate windows so much, why bother to flame anyone discussing what you consider a worthless. Pointing out that "it works just like Windows" is a strike against something is a flame? Only if you love Windows. Why are you even putting your 2 cents worth in in a group that you just said discusses something worthless? Oh, alt.religion.computers isn't worthless; it's a lot more worthwhile than comp.windows.ms.programmer. It sometimes even carries usefull information.