Quick Basic Colon Line Separator - qbasic

I am working on some old qbasic code. It's a mess with all the Goto statements. Am I correct that the following line will always return?
IF FLAG = 0 THEN TARGET = X: GOSUB 55000: TEMP = XI - TEMP2: RETURN
So if I understand this correctly the colon separates statements on the same line. The if only pertains to TARGET = X. The GOSUB, TEMP =, and RETURN will always execute. Correct?
Part of my confusion is because the very next line reads
IF FLAG = 1 THEN STEP = X: GOSUB 115000
And since the label to the second statement is never used in a GOTO I can't see that it would ever get executed.

Yes, I believe your assessment is correct. The colon is a statement separator that lets you have multiple statements on the same line. Assuming your subroutine at 55000 returns, this line should return as well.
I was wrong. Running this program:
if 1=2 then print "Never printed" : print "how about this?"
print "End of program"
on qb64.net prints only End of program. I assume that its grammar details are the same as Qbasic's, although it is a reverse-engineered effort.
As an aside, this code is written in a pre-QBasic style (e.g. using GOSUB and line numbers). There is a script that often came with QBasic (remline.bas, I believe it was called) that is supposed to help translate these kinds of programs to a newer style. I have never used it myself, though.

Related

How do I write a perl6 macro to enquote text?

I'm looking to create a macro in P6 which converts its argument to a string.
Here's my macro:
macro tfilter($expr) {
quasi {
my $str = Q ({{{$expr}}});
filter-sub $str;
};
}
And here is how I call it:
my #some = tfilter(age < 50);
However, when I run the program, I obtain the error:
Unable to parse expression in quote words; couldn't find final '>'
How do I fix this?
Your use case, converting some code to a string via a macro, is very reasonable. There isn't an established API for this yet (even in my head), although I have come across and thought about the same use case. It would be nice in cases such as:
assert a ** 2 + b ** 2 == c ** 2;
This assert statement macro could evaluate its expression, and if it fails, it could print it out. Printing it out requires stringifying it. (In fact, in this case, having file-and-line information would be a nice touch also.)
(Edit: 007 is a language laboratory to flesh out macros in Perl 6.)
Right now in 007 if you stringify a Q object (an AST), you get a condensed object representation of the AST itself, not the code it represents:
$ bin/007 -e='say(~quasi { 2 + 2 })'
Q::Infix::Addition {
identifier: Q::Identifier "infix:+",
lhs: Q::Literal::Int 2,
rhs: Q::Literal::Int 2
}
This is potentially more meaningful and immediate than outputting source code. Consider also the fact that it's possible to build ASTs that were never source code in the first place. (And people are expected to do this. And to mix such "synthetic Qtrees" with natural ones from programs.)
So maybe what we're looking at is a property on Q nodes called .source or something. Then we'd be able to do this:
$ bin/007 -e='say((quasi { 2 + 2 }).source)'
2 + 2
(Note: doesn't work yet.)
It's an interesting question what .source ought to output for synthetic Qtrees. Should it throw an exception? Or just output <black box source>? Or do a best-effort attempt to turn itself into stringified source?
Coming back to your original code, this line fascinates me:
my $str = Q ({{{$expr}}});
It's actually a really cogent attempt to express what you want to do (turn an AST into its string representation). But I doubt it'll ever work as-is. In the end, it's still kind of based on a source-code-as-strings kind of thinking à la C. The fundamental issue with it is that the place where you put your {{{$expr}}} (inside of a string quote environment) is not a place where an expression AST is able to go. From an AST node type perspective, it doesn't typecheck because expressions are not a subtype of quote environments.
Hope that helps!
(PS: Taking a step back, I think you're doing yourself a disservice by making filter-sub accept a string argument. What will you do with the string inside of this function? Parse it for information? In that case you'd be better off analyzing the AST, not the string.)
(PPS: Moritz++ on #perl6 points out that there's an unrelated syntax error in age < 50 that needs to be addressed. Perl 6 is picky about things being defined before they are used; macros do not change this equation much. Therefore, the Perl 6 parser is going to assume that age is a function you haven't declared yet. Then it's going to consider the < an opening quote character. Eventually it'll be disappointed that there's no >. Again, macros don't rescue you from needing to declare your variables up-front. (Though see #159 for further discussion.))

What is the command and syntax for breaking/stopping a program in QBASIC?

I am currently writing a QBASIC program that runs an indefinite loop (while loop). However, if a certain condition is met, I want to exit the program. What command do I use, and also what is the syntax.
Thanks
ENDexits program, and clears all variables, which frees up memory.
STOPexits program, but retains the value of all variables, which makes it possible (in certain versions of QB) to continue execution at another point, by choosing Set next statement from the Debugmenu, and then Startfrom the Runmenu. END has the same effect as STOP + choosing Restart from the Runmenu once the program has terminated.
If you have a loop, and want to exit the program from inside it, you may use either
DO
IF condition THEN EXIT DO
LOOP
END
or
DO
IF condition THEN END
LOOP
You're looking for the END or SYSTEM statement. For example:
PRINT "Hello World!"
END
PRINT "This won't be printed."
If you're using regular old QBASIC/QuickBASIC, then you can ignore all of the QB64 details on the linked pages and just use either SYSTEM or END. Both will do the same thing for the most part.1
If you're using FreeBASIC, it's recommended to use END instead of SYSTEM since some things won't get cleaned up properly when you use SYSTEM. See SYSTEM for more information pertaining to FreeBASIC if that's what you're using.
1 The END statement when running the program using QB.EXE /RUN PROGRAM.BAS will print "Press any key to continue" before exiting to the QB/QBASIC environment. The SYSTEM statement when run the same way will simply return you to the DOS shell without any need for a key press. Also, typing SYSTEM in the "Immediate Window" of the QB/QBASIC environment will exit the environment and return to the DOS shell. Otherwise the two statements behave exactly the same in QB/QBASIC, whether for standalone (compiled) programs or .BAS modules.
You can keep any condition according to the need of your program. For eg:
CLS
LET a = 5
WHILE a > 0
PRINT a;
a = a - 1
WEND
END
Here, in the program while wends executes itself until a = 0. This will not run an infinite loop.
The answer is
exit();
to exit the program.

how do I delete a regex-delimited range plus a few lines with sed?

I have a file containing a header I want to get rid of. I don't have a good way of addressing either the last line of the header or the first line of the data, but I can address the line before the next-to-last line of the header via a regular expression.
Example input:
a bunch of make output which I don't care about
for junk in blah; do
can't check for done!
done
for test in blurfl; do # this is the addressable line
more garbage
done
line 1
line 2
line 3
line 4
line 5
I've done the obvious 1,/for test in blurfl/d, but that doesn't get the next two lines. I can make the command {N;d} which gets rid of the next line, but {N;N;d} just blows away the rest of the file except the last line, which I figured out is because the range isn't slurped up and treated as a single entity, but instead is processed line-by-line.
I feel like I'm missing something obvious because I don't know some sed idiom, but none of the examples on the web or in the GNU manual have managed to trigger anything useful.
I can do this in awk, but other transformations I need to do make awk somewhat, well, awkward. But GNU sed is acceptable.
I have to disagree about [not] using awk. Anything non-trivial is almost always easier in awk than sed [even the sed manpage says so]. Personally, I'd use perl, but ...
So, here's the awk script:
BEGIN {
phase = 0
}
# initial match -- find second loop
phase == 0 {
if ($0 ~ /for test in blurfl/) {
phase = 1
next
}
}
# wait for end of second loop
phase == 1 {
if ($0 ~ /done/) {
phase = 2
next
}
}
# print phase
phase == 2 {
print($0)
}
If you wish to torture yourself [and sed] for complex changes, well, caveat emptor, but don't say I didn't warn you ...
I don't think you can do multi line matches in sed. First time I went down this rabbit hole I ended up using awk, which can support, but now recently I'd probably use Python or Ruby for this kind of thing.

New control transfer statements (labels) for Swift 2.0

What would be the best practices for the new control transfer statements (labels) in Swift 2?
Since I hear about it I can't stop compare it with the goto command from the good and old Basic language, what never was well accepted from experient programmers at the time.
Some uses of the control flow transfer looks ok, like in example below:
outer: for i in 1...100{
for j in 1...100{
print("\(i), \(j)")
if j == 10 {
break outer
}
}
}
But what are the limitations for the control flow transfer use?
When start to be bad practice to use it?
If its use was such a bad practice why it is back?
You can prefix a loop statement, an if statement, or a switch statement with a statement label followed by a colon (:) ,break and continue statements are used to change control flow in a loop statement or a switch statement.
break statement breaks the current loop execution where as continue just breaks current iteration.
consider:
firstLoop :for j in 0...1{
secondLoop: for i in 0...10{
if (i % 2) == 0{
if (i == 4){
break firstLoop
}
print(i)
}
}
}
Output will be : 0,2
If we replace break firstloop by break secondLoop o/p Will be: 0,2,0,2
If we replace break firstloop by continue o/p Will be: 0,2,6,8,10,0,2,6,8,10
If we replace break firstloop by continue firstloop continue o/p Will be again : 0,2,0,2
If continue is followed by a statement label then it will stop the current iteration of that statement label not the loop pointed by statement label.
goto VS statement label
. goto is a kind of unconditional branching ,where you can branch anywhere in the program,The goto statement is discouraged , because it alters the sequential flow of logic .
Why statement Label is used and what is it's Limitation?
. where as continue and break can make use of statement label if and only if it is written inside the loop which has same statement label which it is using so the code will be more safer. It makes programers life easy , off course you can't directly branch out to any part of program using continue,break and statement Label it can be considered as a limitation.
I think you are asking about using labels for break and continue statements. That is a much more limited, safer use than the horrible goto statements from basic. It simply lets you tell the compiler the scope you need to break out of/continue when you have nested looping constructs.
As far as I know break and continue is the only use of labels in Swift, and for that it seems useful and appropriate.

AutoHotKey Source Code Line Break

Is there a way to do line break in AutoHotKey souce code? My code is getting longer than 80 characters and I would like to separate them neatly. I know we can do this in some other language, such as VBA for example below:
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-programming-vba-macros/564301-how-do-i-break-vba-code-into-two-or-more-lines.html
If Day(Date) > 10 _
And Hour(Time) > 20 Then _
MsgBox "It is after the tenth " & _
"and it is evening"
Is there a souce code line break in AutoHotKey? I use a older version of the AutoHotKey, ver 1.0.47.06
There is a Splitting a Long Line into a Series of Shorter Ones section in the documentation:
Long lines can be divided up into a collection of smaller ones to
improve readability and maintainability. This does not reduce the
script's execution speed because such lines are merged in memory the
moment the script launches.
Method #1: A line that starts with "and", "or", ||, &&, a comma, or a
period is automatically merged with the line directly above it (in
v1.0.46+, the same is true for all other expression operators except
++ and --). In the following example, the second line is appended to the first because it begins with a comma:
FileAppend, This is the text to append.`n ; A comment is allowed here.
, %A_ProgramFiles%\SomeApplication\LogFile.txt ; Comment.
Similarly, the following lines would get merged into a single line
because the last two start with "and" or "or":
if (Color = "Red" or Color = "Green" or Color = "Blue" ; Comment.
or Color = "Black" or Color = "Gray" or Color = "White") ; Comment.
and ProductIsAvailableInColor(Product, Color) ; Comment.
The ternary operator is also a good candidate:
ProductIsAvailable := (Color = "Red")
? false ; We don't have any red products, so don't bother calling the function.
: ProductIsAvailableInColor(Product, Color)
Although the indentation used in the examples above is optional, it might improve
clarity by indicating which lines belong to ones above them. Also, it
is not necessary to include extra spaces for lines starting with the
words "AND" and "OR"; the program does this automatically. Finally,
blank lines or comments may be added between or at the end of any of
the lines in the above examples.
Method #2: This method should be used to merge a large number of lines
or when the lines are not suitable for Method #1. Although this method
is especially useful for auto-replace hotstrings, it can also be used
with any command or expression. For example:
; EXAMPLE #1:
Var =
(
Line 1 of the text.
Line 2 of the text. By default, a line feed (`n) is present between lines.
)
; EXAMPLE #2:
FileAppend, ; The comma is required in this case.
(
A line of text.
By default, the hard carriage return (Enter) between the previous line and this one will be written to the file as a linefeed (`n).
By default, the tab to the left of this line will also be written to the file (the same is true for spaces).
By default, variable references such as %Var% are resolved to the variable's contents.
), C:\My File.txt
In the examples above, a series of lines is bounded at
the top and bottom by a pair of parentheses. This is known as a
continuation section. Notice that the bottom line contains
FileAppend's last parameter after the closing parenthesis. This
practice is optional; it is done in cases like this so that the comma
will be seen as a parameter-delimiter rather than a literal comma.
Please read the documentation link for more details.
So your example can be rewritten as the following:
If Day(Date) > 10
And Hour(Time) > 20 Then
MsgBox
(
It is after the tenth
and it is evening
)
I'm not aware of a general way of doing this, but it seems you can break a line and start the remainder of the broken line (e.g. the next real line) with an operator. As long as the second line (and the third, fourth, etc., as applicable) starts with (optional whitespace plus) an operator, AHK will treat the whole thing as one line.
For instance:
hello := "Hello, "
. "world!"
MsgBox %hello%
The presence of the concatenation operator . at the logical beginning of the second line here makes AHK treat both lines as one.
(I also tried leaving the operator and the end of the first line and starting the second off with a double-quoted string; that didn't work.)