EXECUTE: impossible to give parameters? PRINT: how to Locate

EXECUTE: It is impossible to onpass parameters to the called program (because the line MUST end with exe ?)
- possible: EXECUTE "MyProg.exe"
- impossible: EXECUTE "MyProg.exe param1 param2 ..."

PRINT command: is it possible to PRINT a text at a given location (top, left) on an object ? like in QBasic LOCATE y,x. Otherwise it always begins Print at the upper left corner of the object.
(except defining a new object:
alpha n
top n,y
left n,x
Caption n,text$)

Read (or write) files: it seems only possible to read Ascii files, with delimiters.
Could it be possible to read a string of n binary bytes beginning at the current pointer ?
And read or position the current pointer itself?

EXECUTE : it is not possible to pass parameters to the called program. I will see how to make it possible.

PRINT in an object : Same, I will see how to do it.

FILE : it is possible to handle only ASCII files, for the moment. OK, it is a good idea to read n bytes from a given position.

Thank you very much for your positive answers ! I wait for the upgrades...

Concerning FILES (binary or not), I would say read OR write a given number of bytes from a given position (into, or from an Ascii string)

PRINT: what about a possibility to print to the implied Printer instead of screen (like LPRINT), incidentally fixing characters font and size ?

Concerning the files, I will give the possibility to READ and WRITE a certain number of bytes from a given position.

To print on a printer, to choose a printer among the available printers are features I have also to develop.

PANORAMIC is still under development, and I plan also to use peripherals with serial link, parallel link and USB. I plan to interface a joystick, to use databases in dBase, Paradox, SQL format, to drive Excel, Word, OpenOffice, to add a lot of new graphical system objects : LEDs, 7 segments display, dials with needles, bargraphs, ...

But a day has only 24 hours...

I understand it is a very big job, so I'll try to be patient !
Nevertheless, I think some functions are more useful than others...

Yoy can download new versions of PANORAMIC_IDE and of PANORAMIC_EDITOR. It is now possible to launch an external program and to pass parameters to it.
The command is EXECUTE, the syntax of which is modified to accept now optional parameters:
EXECUTE "PRG.EXE" to launch PRG.EXE without parameter,
EXECUTE "PRG.EXE 20" to launch PRG.EXE and to pass 20 as parameter,
EXECUTE "PRG.EXE 20 5" to launch PRG.EXE and to pass 20 and 5 as parameters, etc.

It is also possible to use the content of variables:

Code:

a$="PRG.EXE"
b$="20"
EXECUTE a$+" "+b$

Hi,

panoramic wrote:

Concerning the files, I will give the possibility to READ and WRITE a certain number of bytes from a given position.

To print on a printer, to choose a printer among the available printers are features I have also to develop.

PANORAMIC is still under development, and I plan also to use peripherals with serial link, parallel link and USB. I plan to interface a joystick, to use databases in dBase, Paradox, SQL format, to drive Excel, Word, OpenOffice, to add a lot of new graphical system objects : LEDs, 7 segments display, dials with needles, bargraphs, ...

But a day has only 24 hours...

Congratulations. Panoramic is a very nice development environment. Was easy to put some lines of code working as expected. But I really wanted to have the features you commented, regarding to have acess to databases (natively and in SQL format too).

But please consider the following items as suggestions for what I collected during my initial evaluation of the tool you offered:

- "No Lines" menu could be an option in the Option menu, as a suggestion;

- The same, for the "Run (F9)" menu, as another suggestion. It could be in the File menu. But maintain the button, in the toolbar;

- Having another "Save as..." option would be very interesting, because everytime the source code should be saved (using "Save") before running it (after some correction made in the code), everytime should be specified the file name to be saved, including the fact that you should confirm it again and again. Appear to be like the same behaviour as "Save as" (in other tools). Put a hotkey for "Save", like "Ctrl-S". The same behaviour, for the "Save" button in the toolbar;

- Some error messages could be more useful if there could show the line and what (the cause) really happened and what should be done, to correct it. During my initial testings I made some mistakes but couldn´t find a valid reason, only because I was trying to understand how should I use the editor;

- A debugger and variable inspector should be very important, when checking what problem is really happening (putting the cursor in the current line being processed, if possible too);

- Add the possibility for opening more source codes at the same time, in the editor. This could add more usability for cut-and-paste code between other project;

- Add the possibility for defining a place (specific folder) for the projects and source code, in the options;

- Please add more complete samples in the reference manual, to be possible to understand how to use some command or function;

- Maybe could be useful to use links to be possible to check another referenced command;

- Remove some limitations to be more easily adopted by others, only because is still under development (is very hard to pay for something in development);

- Couldn´t understand why having "Executable (.exe)" and "Application (.exe)" options in the File menu. Could you clarify the difference between them ?

- Could you add more examples about how to use DLLs ?

Rgds,
Sbleck

Be sure that all your suggestions will be deeply examined.
I'm glad to receive ideas to improve panoramic.

For the moment, I can answer for two points.

Executable and application:
An executable does not contain external files, but an application contains all the external files of the source directory.
So, per example, if in the source you have a statement like FILE_LOAD, the file is loaded from the application.
To distribute an application, it is easy: you have not to distribute all the files called in the source, but only one file: the application itself.

Full version:
By the end of July a full and free version will be available for downloading.

panoramic wrote:

Be sure that all your suggestions will be deeply examined.
I'm glad to receive ideas to improve panoramic.

For the moment, I can answer for two points.

Executable and application:
An executable does not contain external files, but an application contains all the external files of the source directory.
So, per example, if in the source you have a statement like FILE_LOAD, the file is loaded from the application.
To distribute an application, it is easy: you have not to distribute all the files called in the source, but only one file: the application itself.

Full version:
By the end of July a full and free version will be available for downloading.

Hi,

Thanks for clarify the difference of executables and applications. Now, I understood that the executable doesn´t contained all the files mentioned in the file_load statement, but when compiling through Application choice, all files that would be referenced by file_load statement would be inserted in the final executable.

But will know more about the databases acess possibilites, also.

Researched in the help examples and documentation and would ask about the variable limits (32 or 64 bits, for the integer ?), of course too...

Rgds,
Sven