BBC BASIC for Windows
Developers' Area >> Future developments >> BB4Wv6 updated http://bb4w.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=developments&action=display&num=1387583278 BB4Wv6 updated
Post by admin on Oct 20th, 2013, 09:17am
The latest release of LB Booster (v2.20) comes with an updated version of BB4Wv6. If you are a BB4Wv6 user you should download new copies of LBB.exe and LBBRUN.exe:
The main change of relevance to a BBC BASIC programmer is that the PRINT statement can now output a string longer than 65535 bytes. Whilst this will probably be of limited value when outputting to the screen, it does mean that an entire document can easily be sent to the printer without fear of receiving a String too long error:
Code:
*OUTPUT 15
PRINT document$
*OUTPUT 0
VDU 2,1,12,3
Richard.
Re: BB4Wv6 updated
Post by admin on Oct 23rd, 2013, 9:28pm
The latest release of LB Booster (v2.20) comes with an updated version of BB4Wv6.
One or two people seem to be unsure about the features of BB4W version 6, so here is a list of the main ones:
New data types: 80-bit floats, 64-bit integers and huge (effectively unlimited length) strings. Removed support for legacy 40-bit floats (except in files and via the indirection operator |). Native support for huge files (exceeding 4 Gbytes length). New *FLOAT 80 command. New *HEX 32/64 command which controls hexadecimal conversion and shift operators. Improved compatibility with 64-bit Windows.
Richard.
Re: BB4Wv6 updated
Post by richardtoohey on Oct 25th, 2013, 08:56am
Hi.
I'm about to use BB4W for a small Windows application I need to write and have seen the postings - like this one - about v6.
If v6 is out, it might make sense for me to start my project with it, but how do I get hold of it?
I can only see 5.94a on the main site. Do I need to download LBB to get v6?
I very much doubt that I will need any v6 features for my project so quite happy to start with 5.94a, but if there is a newer version, I might as well start with it.
Thanks, Richard.
Re: BB4Wv6 updated
Post by admin on Oct 25th, 2013, 11:18am
If v6 is out, it might make sense for me to start my project with it, but how do I get hold of it?
I assume you are (or were) not a member of the Yahoo! group. We had a long discussion there about the pros and cons of releasing v6. Basically there was no consensus, but a significant minority of people felt that its degree of compatibility wasn't sufficient for them to be comfortable with it replacing v5.
My take on it is that v6's compatibility with v5 is not significantly worse than, say, version 3 was with version 2. However I do understand that things are different now; back in 2004, when v3 was released, the 'rate of change' was much faster and there was more of an expectation, and acceptance, that some minor changes to people's programs might be necessary to run with the new version.
Latterly BB4W has been much more 'stable', with changes being relatively minor and resulting in few if any compatibility issues. Therefore people are less accepting of the need to make changes to their code (albeit that the vast majority of programs should run fine without alteration).
So as not to deny v6 to those people who have a specific requirement for its new features - and to allow evaluation to take place - I explained how it was possible to gain access via LB Booster (which after all was the raison d'être for developing BB4W v6 in the first place). But this was only ever intended as a temporary measure.
So that is where we stand today. I'm not particularly inclined to start a new debate about v6 here, as it was the source of more heat than light on the Yahoo group and I received a couple of quite unpleasant personal emails.
Richard.
Re: BB4Wv6 updated
Post by dje4816 on Oct 25th, 2013, 11:20am
I have v5.94. I see that v6 is now available. How do I go about updating, please?
