07-11-2023, 04:17 PM
What Phil is going through here represents a crossroads for QB64.
What is QB64? It's an emulation of Microsoft QuickBASIC and QBasic, right? When QBasic was released (as part of MS-DOS v5), the norm were 16-bit single-CPU computers with VGA, I think 1024x768 with many colors (not that much different from today at least with budget laptops). The system requirements were very restricted. Things depended a lot on how MS-DOS limited available memory. M$ were just trying to sell it in the U.S.A. and Canada primarily and therefore they helped created a "standard" character set which became the CP437, and the set that is seen in the QB64 IDE now, in "Tools/ASCII Chart". At that time it wasn't "let's make it easier for Asians to use our programming system!" It was "let's give the hobbyists a quick and dirty tool". Although there were a few markets in Europe and Latin America, I gather, which provided the alternative character sets.
Now with modern web browsers being able to display all sorts of things, which should have been done only with graphics commands on QBasic, confusion results because QB64 has been trying so hard to remain compatible with QuickBASIC and QBasic, but it means it cannot be compatible with the modern web browsers. Then the CP437 doesn't go far enough. There's the push to be more considerate with people having other writing systems. Also the "geeks" for Linux being full of terminal graphics tricks much beyond "neofetch" and that "Matrix" movie thing. Cannot tell them, you need a graphics screen to do that, cannot do it on a text screen. Then programming in QB64 seems to be a bit of an anachronism. Programming in Python for the Linux terminal seems to become more attractive because "everybody" seems to be doing it. It should bother me but I'm happy to have this best of both worlds which is not perfect, which is like an old dog but good to have around.
I discovered a "flappybird" clone for Linux done with Python, entirely in text mode in the terminal. It's terrible. The player has to crush the spacebar to get two points or so in that game LOL.
In another thread there was an observation about "local" constants and how it should be sensible to allow "local" user-defined type (UDT) definitions.
For that and for the CHR$() "confusion", have to change QB64 so it supports object-oriented programming and Unicode. Or use another programming system that could help that.
What is QB64? It's an emulation of Microsoft QuickBASIC and QBasic, right? When QBasic was released (as part of MS-DOS v5), the norm were 16-bit single-CPU computers with VGA, I think 1024x768 with many colors (not that much different from today at least with budget laptops). The system requirements were very restricted. Things depended a lot on how MS-DOS limited available memory. M$ were just trying to sell it in the U.S.A. and Canada primarily and therefore they helped created a "standard" character set which became the CP437, and the set that is seen in the QB64 IDE now, in "Tools/ASCII Chart". At that time it wasn't "let's make it easier for Asians to use our programming system!" It was "let's give the hobbyists a quick and dirty tool". Although there were a few markets in Europe and Latin America, I gather, which provided the alternative character sets.
Now with modern web browsers being able to display all sorts of things, which should have been done only with graphics commands on QBasic, confusion results because QB64 has been trying so hard to remain compatible with QuickBASIC and QBasic, but it means it cannot be compatible with the modern web browsers. Then the CP437 doesn't go far enough. There's the push to be more considerate with people having other writing systems. Also the "geeks" for Linux being full of terminal graphics tricks much beyond "neofetch" and that "Matrix" movie thing. Cannot tell them, you need a graphics screen to do that, cannot do it on a text screen. Then programming in QB64 seems to be a bit of an anachronism. Programming in Python for the Linux terminal seems to become more attractive because "everybody" seems to be doing it. It should bother me but I'm happy to have this best of both worlds which is not perfect, which is like an old dog but good to have around.
I discovered a "flappybird" clone for Linux done with Python, entirely in text mode in the terminal. It's terrible. The player has to crush the spacebar to get two points or so in that game LOL.
In another thread there was an observation about "local" constants and how it should be sensible to allow "local" user-defined type (UDT) definitions.
For that and for the CHR$() "confusion", have to change QB64 so it supports object-oriented programming and Unicode. Or use another programming system that could help that.