The paradigm of containers and self-referenced names

Mikey mikeythek at gmail.com
Sat Mar 26 00:20:05 EST 2005


> there are occasions when I really need strong variable typing. Like,
> for instance, if I'm trying to pass two floating point numbers, a
> string, and a date to an external function. Do I really have to go
> through the C pain of converting and casting the strings I get from
> the runrev engine? And for each argument?
Yes.  It's either that or push 'em on the stack or use pointers.

> No... I ran away from 4D some time ago. About the time I figured out
> that there really *wasn't* any documentation. And ranted about this to
> the 4D folks at MacWorld and was told that that's the way it is -
> you're supposed to take our courses to find out how to program it. How
> long do you think RunRev would last with an attitude like that?
> Frankly, I'm surprised 4D is still around. I don't mind programming in
> Pascal, but at least let me know what functions are available and what
> arguments they might take...

Reverse order:
1) There aren't any RR manuals.  Tutorials are tutorials.  On-line
help is on-line help.
2) It isn't Pascal.  No stupid sems on the end of each line.  It is
Pascal-like.  Transcript isn't English, either (but it's a lot
closer).
3) The statements you're assigning to 4D seem more appropriately
assigned to the Omnis people.  As long as I've used 4D (v. 2.0, c.
1990?), there has been a relatively-good, relatively-complete manual. 
Just FYI, here are the docs that come with the current version of 4D
(2K4 is the current version - don't ask why they name them this way. 
I know it's 2005).
Installation Guide: 39 pages
Language Reference 2078 pgs.
User Reference 404 p
Upgrade 418 p
Keyboard shortcuts 11 p
QuickStart 112 p
Design Ref 898 p
4D Chart Lang ref 244 p
4D Internet Commands 262 p
4D Tools 42 P
4D Server Ref 142 p
OLE Tools Ref 33 p
2004.1 addendum 42 p
XML Keys Build App Ref 42 p
4D Insider 170 p
4D Write User Ref 214 p
4D Write Lang Ref 332 p
4D Draw Lang Ref 258 p
4D Draw Ref 178 p
4D View Ref 175 p
4D View Lang Ref 368 p
4D for ADO 29 p
4D for MySQL Ref 31 p
4D for Oracle Call Ref 1054 pgs
4D for OCI 189 p
4D for PostgreSQL 51 p
4D ODBC Pro 164 p
4D Open 242 p
4D Open Addendum 8 p
4D Open Ref 345 p
ODBC Driver for 4D Server Ref 44 p
DDE Tools 42 p
DLL Wizard Ref 32 p
Plug In Tools Wizard Ref 24 p
4D Pack 86 p

The core of 4D is discussed in decent detail in about 3750 pgs.  That
doesn't include tutorials or on-line help (I said neither counts for
RR, so to be fair, it really doesn't count for 4D either).  It also
doesn't include the HTML-formatted versions of all of the above
manuals, the MS-help-formated syntax files, etc.  As you can see, I
also didn't count a lot of the other core stuff that's included, since
even though you pay for it you aren't as likely to include it in every
application.

Like I said, I don't ever remember 4D being sparse on documentation. 
The thinnest manual I can remember was the 2.x manual which was a
couple hundred pages, and that was 15 years ago.

I still prefer HC, and I hope I can shortly prefer RR.

-- 
On the first day, God created the heavens and the Earth
On the second day, God created the oceans.
On the third day, God put the animals on hold for a few hours,
   and did a little diving.
And God said, "This is good."


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